Fugitive Rabbi Accused of Sex Crimes Wants 'Guarantees' if Extradited to Israel
Lawyer for Rabbi Eliezer Berland, 78, gets into shouting match with magistrate.
JOHANNESBURG – The attorney for Israeli Rabbi Eliezer Berland, a fugitive accused of serial sex crimes, closed his case at the rabbi’s bail hearing in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, mounting an impassioned plea that the rabbi be given bail, especially since it is Passover.
Lawyer Themba Langa said the rabbi was a man of elevated spirituality and probity, and “in the normal course of events” would have returned to Israel to deal with the allegations of sexual assault made against him by followers.
“But,” said Langa, “I have been instructed by the rabbi that he needs certain guarantees before he can return to Israel. The Israeli state has moved against certain people. We all know the name Ariel Sharon, who was injected and put into a four-year [sic] coma. And the state has also targeted a Rabbi Pinto …”
Langa did not offer any further explanation. But it is understood he was referring to the late prime minister Sharon, who died of natural causes, and to Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto of Mosdot Shuva Israel, who last year was found guilty of bribery, attempted bribery, obstruction of justice and started his prison sentence on February 16.
Berland, 78, one of the leaders of the Bratslav Hasidic movement in Israel and considered a holy man by his followers, has been on the run since 2012 when allegations were made by female followers in Israel that he had variously raped or sexually harassed them. Berland has managed to live under the noses of authorities from Morocco to the Netherlands and Zimbabwe. In South Africa, prior to his arrest on April 7, he had been staying at hotels and golf estates. He is followed by about 40 families, to whom he is a spiritual guru.
The day’s business began with Langa saying that South African authorities had botched the extradition process by moving to a bail hearing before a proper inquiry was held into the charges brought against Berland. “This being the case,” said Langa, “keeping him in custody now is therefore irregular. And he should be released.”
Regional Magistrate Pravina Raghunandan, who had earlier in the morning called the legal teams to her chambers to let them know that she herself was “concerned” about whether the court had the authority to hold a bail hearing, clearly took offense at Langa introducing her concern as his own legal argument – and asked when he had discovered that the court process might be flawed and why he had not raised the matter before.
Magistrate: 'Don't point fingers at court!'
This dialogue descended into a shouting match, with Langa apparently losing his temper and Raghunandan telling him not “to point his fingers at the court, not to shout at the court and not to call the court incompetent.” The prosecutor, advocate Nerisha Naidoo, said the decision to hold a bail hearing urgently was as a result of submissions from Langa, who had said some weeks ago that it was “in the interests of justice” to hold a bail hearing for Berland.
Langa then closed his case, telling the court why Berland was not a flight risk. “The rabbi has hired lawyers, attended court, given a home address, surrendered to investigators, and never tried to avoid arrest,” said Langa.
“Moreover,” he continued, “he has an immense worldwide following of about 1.3-million people and is a wonderful spiritual healer. He has been incarcerated for 19 days. In addition, the allegations brought against him seem to have been of the sort that can be easily defended. Clearly some women were uncomfortable but these things happen and can be worked out.”
Naidoo countered that Berland’s Ivory Coast passport was a fake, his Israeli passport belonged to a deceased person, and his entry permit into South Africa had terminated in February; that Berland had repeatedly tried to mislead the court by claiming, for example, that he had applied for political asylum in South Africa, for which there was no proof; that the charges he faced in Israel were in fact serious ones; and that he had given as his permanent address in South Africa a property belonging to someone called Henry Kruger, who had allegedly been an “apartheid-era spy,” and chartered his plane to people who needed to cross borders with a minimum of fuss.
Naidoo said Berland’s situation in South Africa was the same as it had been in the Netherlands. There, she said, he had skipped the country, forfeiting his bail of 50,000 euros. “He could do the same here,” she said. Naidoo said Berland had no followers in Nablus, as claimed, nor was he targeted by Israel – he was merely a fugitive from justice.
Raghunandan then adjourned the proceedings until tomorrow morning – today is Freedom Day, a South African holiday – when she will decide whether Berland can be given bail or must remain in custody. She said that Berland should therefore prepare to go to Johannesburg Prison (known sarcastically as “Sun City” by locals) where he had spent the weekend, including the first three days of Passover.
At this point Langa leapt to his feet and said it was “completely unacceptable” that an “old man who has suffered so much” should be sent to prison where his food has been stolen and three of his followers had been locked up for three hours on Friday night.
Langa spoke for 20 minutes, continually repeating angrily that the state would have “a dead man on its hands” if Berland were returned to Sun City. Despite objections from the prosecution, Raghunandan acquiesced and ordered that Berland be housed in the Randburg police station for the next two nights.
As the judge was leaving the court, Berland surfaced from reading and said to the court that he actually wanted to return to Sun City. “I don’t care about food,” he said, “I want the single cell I have at Sun City so that I can study.”
There was pandemonium in the court and Langa stalked out. An aide of Berland’s, known as Natan, said: “We must do what he wants. We didn’t know that he would prefer to study rather than eat.”
“For then will I turn to the peoples a
pure language that they may all call upon the name of the LORD to serve
Him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall they
bring My suppliants even the daughter of My dispersed as Mine offering.”
Zephaniah 3:9-10 (The Israel Bible™)
On
Wednesday afternoon, two of the greatest rabbis of the generation met
and discussed how very close the Messiah is, and how Christians and
Muslims have an important role to play in that process.
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch,Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court and the Head of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem, paid a rare visit to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky at his home in Bnei Barak. They
are two of the most prominent Torah figures alive today. Conversations
between such great men have enormous significance and the
Hebrew-language website Kikar Shabbat recorded the dialogue between these two great rabbis.
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch After warm greetings, the rabbis
began to discuss the problems facing the Jews in this generation. Rabbi
Kanievsky said that troubles were to be expected. “It is the days before
Messiah,” he explained.
Rabbi Sternbuch agreed. “In the End
of Days, those who fear God will despair and their hands will loosen
from fighting God’s war against the sinners, and there will be no one to
rely upon except God,” he said, adding, “We have to bring the Messiah.”
Rabbi Kanievsky answered that the
Messiah should be arriving in the very near future. He quoted the Talmud
(Megillah 17b) again, saying, “In the year after shmittah the Son of David will come.”
Rabbi Kanievsky was referring to a
prediction he had made earlier in the year based on the Talmud. The
shmittah (sabbatical) year comes once every seven years and ended this
year on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The year in which Rabbi Kanievsky
predicted the Messiah would come, according to the Talmud, will end next
Rosh Hashana, in September.
“The year after the Shemitta isn’t over,” he added.
Rabbi Sternbuch answered by quoting Jeremiah 8:2,
which reads, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved” – implying that according to the Talmud, the Messiah should have
already arrived if it was truly coming in this year.
Rabbi Kanievsky insisted that the
Messiah was indeed coming in this year. He opened the Talmud folio
(Ketubot 112b) that contained the prediction and began to read out loud
to Rabbi Sternbuch. Rabbi Sternbuch considered this and responded with a different source.
“We have an ancient authenticated
hand-written manuscript from the Rambam (a Spanish Torah authority from
the twelfth century), in which he says that before the coming of the
Messiah, the Christians and the Ishmaelites (Arabs) will come to
Israel,” he pointed out.
The manuscript the rabbi referred to is a recent version of the Rambam’sMishnah Torah, recently published with restored sections censored by medieval Christian authorities.
Rabbi Sternbuch’s interpretation of
the Rambam does seem to happening today. The creation of the State of
Israel was a miraculous fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham,
restoring the land of Israel to the Jewish people, but it also
benefitted Christians, establishing a bubble of religious freedom in a
region of the world that does not tolerate pluralism. Almost three
million Christians come to Israel every year to visit their holy sites
in a way that is not permitted in regions under Muslim rule, and the
Jewish state is home to a considerable Christian population as well.
Father Gabriel Naddaf Gabriel Naddaf, an Israeli priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, said in an interview with the Algemeiner
that “the Jewish state is the only country in the Middle East where
Christians can practice their faith free from persecution”, noting, “The
Christian community in Israel has more than quadrupled since
independence in 1948, from 34,000 to 158,000 in 2012.”
Though not as positive or as
beneficial as the Christian connection, the Arabs have also multiplied
in the Land of Israel as the Messiah approaches. Before the British
Mandate, Palestine, a neglected corner of the Ottoman Empire, had barely
700,000 people living in the country. As the Jewish population
increased between World War One and World War Two, the Arab population
also increased by 120 percent.
Rabbi Kanievsky continued reading in the Talmud, which described yet another aspect of the days preceding the Messiah.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. “In the days to come, all the
non-fruit bearing trees in israel will bear fruit.” Rabbi Kanievsky
explained, “When the Messiah comes, everyone will repent, and the people
that ‘didn’t bear fruit’ will bear fruit and learn Torah.”
Rabbi Kanievsky seemed to be saying
that in the Messianic era, Christians and Muslims will be a source of
Torah learning – and this phenomenon is appearing as well. Many
movements in Christianity are beginning to seek out their roots in
Torah and Judaism. Hebrew Roots and Bnai Yosef are growing movements
that advocate doing Mitzvot and Torah study.
Both Rabbi Kanievsky and Rabbi
Sternbuch are brilliant Torah scholars whose decisions regarding Torah
law are unquestionably authoritative. When rabbis of this stature agree
that the Messiah is imminent, it is clearly a sign to sit up and take
notice. (and weep)
More than 40 people of prominence have written letters to a judge, requesting mercy for Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the House who is awaiting sentencing in a bank fraud and perjury case.
Formally, Hastert is merely facing the music
for illegally-structured cash withdrawals, and for lying to federal
authorities about what the cash was for. But it’s Hastert’s sexual abuse of at least four boys under his care that
has most people a lot more upset. The cash was hush money that Hastert
paid to someone who knew his secret. The statute of limitations has run
out on the child abuse, so Hastert faces at most six month in jail — for
skirting banking regulations, and for his fibs to the FBI.
But even that measly sentence is inhumane, believes Tom DeLay, the former U.S. House Majority Leader, and no stranger to financial shenanigans himself.
In a letter defending Hastert’s character, DeLay referenced not only Hastert’s ill health, but also his faith, writing:
“He is a good man that loves the Lord. He doesn’t deserve what he is going through.”
Four
other congressmen also sent letters asking the court for leniency in
Hastert’s sentencing. They are former California representatives John T. Doolittle and David Dreier, former Connecticut representative Porter Goss, and former Illinois representative Thomas Ewing. All are law-and-order Republicans.
My friend and fellow Patheos bloggerDan Fincke promptly and rightly mocked their concern on his Facebook page:
What has this country come to, what with its political correctness and insistence on actual liberty and justice for all, instead of only for powerful wealthy white Christian men who may abuse all others with impunity! Make America Great Again! Free Dennis Hastert!
The fabulously caustic Mrs. Betty Bowers, a conservative-Christian-impersonating comedian, also reacted to the news in fine style:
As
you will recall, professional Christian scold Mike Huckabee asked the
public to look the other way when it turned out that one of the
Kardashians of Christ — Josh Duggar — is a child molester. Now, Tom
DeLay has asked a judge to do likewise for Dennis Hastert.
Tom
and Mike have just announced that they are forming a new lobbying group
to be called “Politicians Exonerating Deviants Of Sin” (D/B/A “PEDOS”). PEDOS will help stanch the persecution of adults who touch children inappropriately, but only if those adults own Bibles, with the slogan: “Christians are nicer molesters!”
Perfect.
In fairness, we should keep in mind CBS News’ report that
most of the letters of support for Hastert were written six to eight
weeks ago, “before prosecutors had fully detailed the sexual abuse
allegations leveled at Hastert.” That said, credible allegations about
the abuse had been swirling since last year. And even if
all Hastert had done was violate a banking law, it’s still an act of
disturbing hubris for DeLay to say that his friend deserves a milder
sentence because of his ostensible religious piety.
Hastert will
be sentenced on Wednesday. Regardless of the term the judge imposes, his
bigger punishment will be that many of his one-time supporters in
Illinois, where the abuse took place several decades ago, have washed
their hands of him. Case in point: Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., his
alma mater, has already removed Hastert’s name from a public-policy center he helped create.
The scene captured by the surveillance camera shows an ultra-Orthodox
man trying to force himself on a young boy in the narrow entrance of an
apartment building.
It happened last month, on Purim, in the Israeli town of Bnei Brak. Within a few hours, the footage was posted on Facebook. Almost immediately, the assailant was identified, and two days later, he was under arrest.
That would not have been the normal course of events 10 years ago, five years ago or even six months ago.
But reporting sexual abuse is no longer as taboo as it once was in the ultra-Orthodox community, and among those who deserve credit for this change is a group of young Israeli crusaders fed up with the long-standing silence about such crimes in their midst.
Their newfound organization is aptly named Lo Tishtok (Thou Shalt Not Be Silent) — a reference to what they say is their unwritten 11th commandment. It was their organization that was first to receive the incriminating footage recorded on the surveillance camera, forwarded by an anonymous resident. “We immediately posted it on our Facebook group,” recounts Tzviki Fleishman, one of the founders of Lo Tishtok, “and asked that if anyone recognized the man in the picture to let us know. It didn’t take much time before someone identified him.”
But that’s when their special challenges began. Among Haredi Jews, Fleishman explains, those who report sexual crimes live in fear of being ostracized for serving as informers and maligning the community. “So we had to intervene with the police to ensure that the person who identified the assailant could maintain his anonymity,” he recounts. “Not only that, but he also refused to step foot inside the police station. So we had to bring an investigator to his house.”
Racheli Roshgold (L), Avigayil Karlinsky, Tzviki Fleishman and Yaakov Matan, the founders of Lo Tishtok, in Jerusalem.
Lo Tishtok began as a Facebook group last October and has since garnered close to 5,000 likes. Initially, it was meant to provide a safe forum for members of the ultra-Orthodox community wanting to hold discussions about what had hitherto been undiscussable. Today, the organization functions more as a support and counseling center for victims of sexual crimes. Currently run on a completely voluntary basis, Lo Tishtok is about to close a deal with a funding organization, its founders say, that would enable it to operate as a full-fledged non-profit.
The Israeli non-profit Tahel has for years provided support to religious victims of sexual abuse, but Lo Tishtok is the only organization in the world to date dedicated exclusively to the ultra-Orthodox community.
The four founders of Lo Tishtok defy common stereotypes linked to ultra-Orthodox Jews — women with large broods of children and men studying in yeshivas. Fleishman, a 26-year-old Chabadnik with one child, is serving belatedly in the Israeli army while pursuing a degree in psychology. Avigayil Karlinsky, a 27-year-old mother of two, just completed a seven-year stint as a programmer in the high-tech industry and is now studying for her bachelor’s in sociology. Racheli Roshgold, a 29-year-old divorced mother of three who was raised in the Ger Hasidic sect, is employed as a gynecological nurse at a religious hospital and as a sex therapist at a private clinic that serves the ultra-Orthodox. A victim of sexual abuse herself, and one not ashamed to speak out about her ordeal as a child, Roshgold is a rarity in her community. Yaakov Matan, a 30-year-old father of three, is employed as a counselor for troubled youth while studying for his degree in psychology.
All four were friends on Facebook when in October of last year, Karlinsky wrote a post that started it all. It was just after the latest wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks had started, and many Israelis were feeling loath to walk the streets. In her widely shared post, Karlinsky compared the vulnerability Israelis in general were feeling those days, men included, to what women experience on a daily basis. “A terrorist sticks a knife in the body,” she wrote. “A rapist sticks a knife in the soul.”
Fleishman had previously spent a few years living in New York, where he had become familiar with the activities of Jewish Community Watch, an organization that works with victims of child sexual abuse. “At the time, this organization had succeeded in ousting the principal of a religious school who had abused children, and all I could think was, wow, these people are really doing something huge,” he recalls. “I knew that when I got back to Israel I wanted to do something like that.” After reading her post, Fleishman reached out to Karlinsky and suggested they create an organization that would combat sex crimes in their own Israeli community. Karlinsky was game.
Their next move was to enlist Roshgold, who had considerable experience with sexual abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community through her various jobs. Matan, who had been briefly acquainted with Karlinsky and was quite shaken up by her post, asked to volunteer his services as well.
Since their Facebook page went live, says Fleishman, the group has been approached by “many dozens” of sexual abuse victims through private messages. To date, 10 police complaints have been filed on their behalf.
In some cases, those who reach out to Lo Tishtok are recent victims of abuse. In others, they are adults who have finally found the strength to talk about sexual abuse they suffered as children. The incidence of sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community, says Karlinsky, is not different from elsewhere, from what she and her partners have been able to ascertain. “But what is unique in the Haredi world is that boys are more likely to be victims than girls, and that’s because they’re easier prey. That is to say, they’re more likely to be in close range of potential abusers in the synagogue and yeshiva,” she says, because, with rare exceptions, the assailants are men who serve either as teachers, rabbis or both. These men have much less contact with girls in the ultra-Orthodox world, because girls are generally taught and mentored by women.
At times, the group intervenes to find police investigators sensitive to the particular challenges ultra-Orthodox Jews face when discussing a subject as taboo as sexual abuse. “We had a recent case of a woman who had been raped repeatedly by her brother-in-law, but who had finally gathered the courage to go to the police,” relates Fleishman. “The tone of the policewoman who questioned her, though, completely scared her off. We then approached a Haredi police investigator we knew, and once he was in the picture, this woman was willing to open up.”
Because of her professional experience, Roshgold is the first contact person for callers and is in charge of triage: She decides when a case should be referred to the police, the courts, medical personnel or psychologists. Sometimes, the victims are not seeking treatment or sanctions, but just an attentive ear, in which case she makes herself available to listen — and it can be at any time. “Even if it’s three in the morning, I’m there for them because I know if that’s when the need to speak strikes them, it’s important that I’m there to listen.”
The sexual abuse she suffered as a child, says Roshgold, left her terribly scarred. “But it has also given me the strength to help others,” she says, ”and working with other victims has helped cure the tormented little girl in me.”
Her parents are far from thrilled that this has become her new mission in life, she concedes, but that has not deterred her. “My mother always asks me why I need to talk about these things,” says Roshgold, “and I tell her it’s so that in a generation from now there won’t be any more parents who are embarrassed by daughters talking about such things. And besides that, I tell her, I’m not the one who should be embarrassed. It’s the person who did this to me who should.”
Last week I attended a major
three-day conference of hundreds of Jewish funders, where I participated
in a panel discussion on how philanthropic foundations such as ours
have succeeded in addressing various stigmatized social needs — issues
that other funders seem to avoid. I spoke about our pioneering work in
the field of mental health, and two colleagues representing other
foundations described their groundbreaking work in helping people with
disabilities and people with addictions.
The
room in which our panel discussion took place was situated at the edge
of the hotel grounds, quite a distance from the nerve center of the
conference. I don’t doubt that the choice of location was purely
coincidental, but the symbolism was hard to miss. Unsavory topics tend
to hover on the fringes of Jewish philanthropy’s collective
consciousness — perhaps because donors are loath to acknowledge that
Jews succumb to the same sordid impulses as do the rest of humanity; or
maybe these issues simply depress them.
In the course of my presentation on our work
in mental health, I elaborated on our recent activities addressing child
sexual abuse within the Jewish community. Statistics point to incidence
rates of 1 in 3 among girls and 1 in 7 among boys.
Just over a year ago, our foundation together with two others launched an organization called ASAP.
Since that time, hundreds of child sexual abuse survivors in the US
have come forward to request our help in accessing therapy, and
thousands are being assisted by local NGOs. Similarly, programs that we
support in Israel are experiencing an exponential increase in demand for
their services. And yet, institutions where children congregate, such
as schools, summer camps, synagogues and youth groups, lack effective
policies to prevent incidents of child sexual abuse.
During that panel discussion’s question and
answer session, while we fielded numerous questions from those in
attendance, there was not one question about child sexual abuse. Despite
all the publicity this issue has received, such as the movie Spotlight, the Penn State scandal and the current allegations against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the subject remains taboo.
Our efforts to promote awareness have made
inroads with a handful of prestigious educational networks, whose
administrations now realize that implementing effective child-safety
policies — and soon — is vitally important and is in fact in their own
best interests as well. We hope to support these efforts, monetarily,
professionally and operationally, and to extend them to other
institutions.
Yet our coalition of Jewish funders for this
cause remains small. Interestingly, all of us are haredi. As an active
member of this coalition, I have reached out to highly educated,
progressive, deeply caring donors from across the Jewish spectrum to
partner with us to combat this scourge, but with scant success. This
puzzles me, for child sexual abuse is hardly a theoretical problem; the
children and grandchildren of these very donors are vulnerable. All of
our children are at risk.
How is it, then, that we blithely send our
children to institutions that lack effective safeguards against a widely
recognized danger that causes untold damage to such a huge percentage
of boys and girls everywhere? Why aren’t we speaking up, demanding that
our schools and camps and synagogues implement basic protocols for
preventing further incidents? Could anyone think that we can afford to
remain in denial?
It seems that it will take more time for the
Jewish philanthropic community to realize the extent of the problem. We
must be patient, as this happens every time our foundation identifies
and tackles an unaddressed need. It happened in 2007, when we began
helping haredim in Israel integrate into the workforce, and no one else
was interested. It happened again in 2009, when we began helping victims
of domestic violence start a new life – not a popular cause back then.
In each of these cases, eventually, the broader community caught up.
And the community will certainly catch up with our deep concern for child sexual abuse as well. The only question is, How many more of our children will need to suffer before that happens?
“The
world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are
evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”— Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein is, of course, remembered as one
of the greatest physicists of all time. But this Jewish scientist also
had a prolific love of music, politics, and writing, and a profoundly
deep love for Israel.
Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in the German city of Ulm. As a
young child he moved to Munich with his family—Jewish parents Hermann and Pauline Einstein.
Hermann was a salesman and engineer, moving the family to found a
company that manufactured electric equipment utilizing direct current,
the unidirectional flow of electric charge.
Clearly, an appreciation for the sciences ran in the family. Young
Albert attended advanced classes in primary and secondary school,
building models and mechanical apparatuses for fun in his spare time.
At the age of 10, Einstein met Max Talmud, a Jewish medical student who introduced the future Nobel laureate to a variety of science, math and philosophy texts.
He kept kosher at age 12
Young Einstein went through an observant phase
at 12, even though his parents were secular Ashkenazi German Jews. He
didn’t stay interested in Judaism long enough to have a bar mitzvah
though. A Jewish medical student and family friend — named, ironically
enough, Max Talmud — introduced the creative boy to popular science
books, which Einstein saw as contradicting religious teachings. At age twelve he
discovered geometry (the study of points, lines, and surfaces) and was
taken by its clear and certain proofs.Einstein developed an appreciation of music at an early age. His
mother played the piano reasonably well and wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to instill in him a love of music but also to help him assimilate into German culture. According to conductor Leon Botstein, Einstein is said to have begun playing when he was 5, although he did not enjoy it at that age.[106]
When he turned 13 he discovered the violin sonatas of Mozart,
whereupon "Einstein fell in love" with Mozart's music and studied music
more willingly. He taught himself to play without "ever practicing
systematically", he said, deciding that "love is a better teacher than a
sense of duty."[106] At age 17, he was heard by a school examiner in Aarau as he played Beethoven's violin sonatas,
the examiner stating afterward that his playing was "remarkable and
revealing of 'great insight'." What struck the examiner, writes
Botstein, was that Einstein "displayed a deep love of the music, a
quality that was and remains in short supply. Music possessed an unusual
meaning for this student."[106]
Music took on a pivotal and permanent role in Einstein's life from
that period on. Although the idea of becoming a professional himself was
not on his mind at any time, among those with whom Einstein played chamber music
were a few professionals, and he performed for private audiences and
friends. Chamber music had also become a regular part of his social life
while living in Bern, Zürich, and Berlin, where he played with Max
Planck and his son, among others. He is sometimes erroneously credited
as the editor of the 1937 edition of the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's work; that edition was actually prepared by Alfred Einstein,[citation needed] who may have been a distant relation.[107][108]
In 1931, while engaged in research at the California Institute of
Technology, he visited the Zoellner family conservatory in Los Angeles,
where he played some of Beethoven and Mozart's works with members of the
Zoellner Quartet.[109][110] Near the end of his life, when the young Juilliard Quartet
visited him in Princeton, he played his violin with them, and the
quartet was "impressed by Einstein's level of coordination and
intonation."[106]
As a teenager, Einstein moved with his family once more, first to
Milan, then Pavia in northern Italy. Once the family settled in Pavia,
Einstein returned to Munich to finish his secondary studies.
At 16, Einstein was accepted to the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau,
Switzerland, then a year later began studies at ETH Zurich to earn a
four-year degree in mathematics and physics teaching.
During this period Einstein met his future wife, Mileva Maric. Maric was also studying under the math and physics teaching program. The couple had a child, daughter Lieserl, in 1902, who was either adopted or died of scarlet fever.
In 1903, Einstein married Mileva. Over the next few years the pair
had two sons, but the couple divorced in 1919. During that time,
Einstein worked on his theory of general relativity, prompting his
summation that light from various stars would bend with the sun’s
gravity.
In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect.
Over the next few years, Einstein traveled extensively, making a
much-heralded first trip to New York City in 1921. He traveled through
Asia and then-Palestine, the only trip he would make to Israel.
He said at the time, “I consider this the greatest day of my life.
Before, I have always found something to regret in the Jewish soul, and
that is the forgetfulness of its own people. Today, I have been made
happy by the sight of the Jewish people learning to recognize themselves
and to make themselves recognized as a force in the world.”
Einstein remarried shortly after his divorce from Mileva, to Elsa Lowenthal.
The Einsteins stayed in the US following a trip in 1933, choosing not
to return to a Germany becoming swept up in Hitler-furor.
The physicist wrote to a friend at the time: “For me the most
beautiful thing is to be in contact with a few fine Jews—a few millennia
of a civilized past do mean something after all.” In a separate letter
he wrote, “In my whole life I have never felt so Jewish as now.”
Einstein became associated with the Manhattan Project in 1939, an
elite group of scientists organized to develop an atomic weapon. It
would become a source or regret for Einstein in later years, though he
still felt vindicated in making a move to urge President Roosevelt to take action.
“I made one great mistake in my life — when I signed the letter to
President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was
some justification — the danger that the Germans would make them,” he
reportedly told a friend later in life.
In 1940, Einstein officially became an American citizen. He also
joined the NAACP at Princeton and campaigned for equal rights for the
nation’s African American community.
Einstein passed away on April 18, 1955, at the age of 76, after suffering a rupture of an aortic aneurysm.
In the last days of his life, the iconic scientist was working on an
address commemorating Israel’s seventh anniversary, meant for broadcast
to the American people. Einstein carried the draft pages of the speech
with him to the hospital to undergo surgery for the rupture, but died
before he was able to publicly give his address.
In the draft pages, Einstein wrote, “International policies for the
Middle East should be dominated by efforts to secure peace for
Israel…this would conform with the universal ideals of peace and
brotherhood which have been the most significant contribution of the
people of Israel in its long history.”
Famous quotes from Einstein:
“We must enhance the light, not fight the darkness.”
“Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.”
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to
climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
"The American ultra-Orthodox and yeshiva community must wake up!"
Every Friday night, I help run a “Carlebach” service in Beit Shemesh.
It’s a unique service that brings together Jews from all backgrounds to
pray, sing and dance on a weekly basis. While closing up the synagogue
this past Friday night, a Hasidic man in his early thirties who was at
this service for the first time approached me and introduced himself.
“Before you were elected to the Knesset, I was in Kollel (religious
seminary for married men), and could not support my growing family,” he
began. “So I went to work. But I felt like a second-class citizen when I
did so, and was made to feel that way by those around me who were still
in Kollel. It got so bad that when I saw someone who knew me walking
by the place where I worked, I would hide so they would not see me
working.”
I began telling him how bad I felt for him, but he cut me off.
“Don’t worry, it all changed when you came into office. The moment
you changed the government’s policies and cut the stipends, and it was
no longer financially worthwhile to stay in learning instead of working,
massive numbers of Kollel guys began working. This made it acceptable
in our community to work, and I no longer felt like a second-class
citizen and I did not have to hide any longer.”
He said that despite the protests against the stipend cuts from many
in the ultra-Orthodox community, he and many others supported our
effort. He also agreed that working to support your family with dignity
is not only consistent with being a Talmudic scholar and fervently
religious, but is actually the ideal.
My new Hasidic friend then said that while he was thankful he had a
job, it was not not the type of job he wanted. He blamed this on his
inability to speak English, and was frustrated that many religious
schools in Israel don’t teach English. “Why didn’t they teach us
English? What could possibly be wrong with English?”
I told him that he was correct, and that was why my political
party, Yesh Atid, cut into the funding of schools that did not teach
English, and pushed to introduce English instruction in all schools.
I said that I needed to start walking home, and he asked if he could join me to ask one last question.
“Those young men with the knitted kippot and untucked white shirts
who were in that service just now — are any of them IDF soldiers?”
I told him that many are active soldiers, and that two or three of them were home from their first week of basic training.
“Unbelievable,” he replied. “They have it all. The way they danced
and prayed, they are clearly very spiritual and religious. They are
serving the country. And they, no doubt, have a general education.
They
have all that, while half of my cousins who were presented with a life
of Torah-only are no longer religious. Had they known that an option of
balance was available, they would still be religious.”
I told him that many in Israel are aware of the problem, and
reassured him that we are committed to correcting it — and that this was
among the reasons I entered politics in the first place.
This remarkable conversation reminded me to tune out the propaganda
and rhetoric coming from the ultra-Orthodox media and its political
leadership, and to keep on working at the important task at hand.
The American ultra-Orthodox and yeshiva community must wake up and
recognize that this Hasid was not an aberration. He is a part of the
silent majority whose voices have been stifled but are crying for
help. We must not fight them; but help them. This is what will ensure
the continuity of Judaism for generations to come.
Rabbi Dov Lipman served in the Israeli Knesset (2013-2015) with
the Yesh Atid party, the first American born MK in 30 years. He holds
rabbinic ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College and a Masters
Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University and currently serves
as Director of Public Diplomacy in the vice chairman’s office of the
World Zionist Organization.
There is a certain group within the Jewish people that over and over
again stray from our holy tradition. These people act as if they have
very little regard to many of the statements and teachings made
throughout Jewish scripture and subsequent Rabbinic literature. The
existence and prominence of these people is a definite threat to the
future of Judaism, and if we do not act quickly it may be too late.
The group that I am referring to is, of course, Jewish Fundamentalists (or Chassidim.)
These people, including but not limited to: the Charedei world, most of
the Yeshivish community, and even some Jews that consider themselves to
be more “modern”, are sadly a growing phenomenon within Jewish
demographics. While there are many reasons why I strongly feel that
these groups are a major break from classical Jewish tradition, I would
like to focus on one idea that I feel can summarize most of the others.
Jewish fundamentalists (well really any religious fundamentalists)
are the most closed minded people in the world. They are closed minded
in regards to science, empiricism, theology, or really any way of
thinking that may, sort of, eventually, contradict many of their
specious beliefs.
Let’s start at the beginning.
If we believe that God created the world, and the magnificent
universe should draw us to the praise of God (Psalm 19), then it
probably makes sense that we have some ability to understand the natural
world – aka science. This of course presents an immediate problem, as
many of the ideas throughout the Torah directly contradict a scientific
way of viewing and thinking about the world. No I am not talking about
one time events such as the splitting of the sea or some food falling
from heaven – while these miracles clearly contradict science (and I
personally do not believe that they ever happened) it is still somewhat
reasonable to hold these beliefs to be true and accept a scientific view
of the world. I am talking big picture: age of the universe,
evolution, our knowledge of the universe and the way it works. It is in
these fields that fundamentalists will close their eyes and their mind
to any sort of logical or rational argument, branding all who disagree
as either stupid or heretical.
In the past Judaism and biblical interpretation was never about
trying to stick to the literal translation of the Bible at all costs –
but rather it was a quest to learn more about the world and God. When
it came to learning about the natural world, many Jewish thinkers felt
that an adequate knowledge of science and the universe was crucial to
understanding God. Some of these scholars wrote that a prophet was one
who understood science (ever heard of the Rambam). Science and ration
was not viewed as the enemy in classical Judaism, rather it was viewed
as necessary to fully understand the world.
The well known Torah Scholar Malbim actually TWICE changed his
commentary of Genesis due to scientific discovery in his time. If
science revealed a secret about the world than we must use it to deepen
our understanding of God and the Torah. Over and over again the Rabbis
in the Talmud use empirical evidence to try and determine facts in many
different cases. In some cases in the Talmud the Rabbis even admit that
their understanding of a natural phenomenon is wrong and they are
forced to re-evaluate their position (Pesachim 94b). Other exegetes
such as the Ibn Ezra or Rabbi Judah Hachassid talk about the possibility
of anachronistic verses in the Torah being added in later – due to
their literary analysis of the text. Of course these fundamentalists
feel so strongly that their world view is the “correct one” that many of
them will even prohibit their students from reading these works. In a
famous ruling Rabbi Moshe Feinstein actually wrote that Rabbi Judah
Hachassid’s work was a forgery (based off of zero evidence). Other
Yeshivot who do teach these classical Jewish sources will argue that
these Rabbis did not really mean what they wrote or find other very
creative ways to distort what they say.
When Jews who do realize that science is valuable try to fuse it into
their understanding of Torah, the Jewish Fundamentalists are quick to
silence them (Natan Slifkin anyone). And here is the main problem! It
is not just that these people simply disagree with science and the world
of empiricism – rather they view anyone who does accept science as an
enemy who must be stopped. This is a major break from Jewish
tradition. The irony, of course, being that the group of people who
feel in charge of defending this tradition are in many cases the biggest
threat to its continuity.
In order for Judaism to continue to thrive we must act together to
stop giving these people dominant voices in our community. It is
absolutely ridiculous that pre college students are sent to certain
yeshivot in Israel where the Rabbis spend the entire year trying to
convince these students to turn down college and remain in yeshiva
instead. Furthermore, once young men do enroll in a – God forbid –
secular college, there are actually organization and people that will
try and convince students to leave mid college to pursue yeshiva study.
The motive for these Rabbis is the belief that Torah study is the only
important and worthwhile discipline for one to pursue in their life
time. It pains me that such teachers have seemingly never opened up the
most important halachic work of all time.
One who makes up his mind
to involve himself with Torah and not to work, and to support himself
from charity, has profaned God’s Name and brought the Torah into
contempt, extinguished the light of religion, brought evil upon himself,
and has taken away his life from the World-to-Come… (Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:10)
Furthermore, many Jewish communities filled with doctors, scientists,
and professors are lead by Yeshivish Rabbis who fundamentally disagree
with the disciplines of the majority of their community! How can a
Rabbi denying evolution, inspire a group of doctors in their Judaism!
Many Modern Orthodox schools employ Yeshivish/Charedi Rabbis,
worsening the already bad situation. Does it make sense for a high
school student to spend half his day learning science, math, and history
– and the other half of his day being told that these things are
false!?!
If we want to ensure the survival of Judaism we must stop those who
break the valuable Jewish tradition of searching out for truth in the
world.
We must stop hiring these fundamentalists for any sort of
teaching position whatsoever! Just as the Charedi and Yeshivish world
views modern Orthodoxy as a less religious version of Judaism, we must
view them in the same manner. If Judaism continues at the trajectory
that it is headed now, more and more people will be turned off by the
anti-science and anti-thinking attitudes that permeate the religious
communities – and we will eventually be left with two groups: one of
fundamentalists and one of non-religious and even anti-religious
people. The only people with the power to stop this phenomenon are
those people who value both Judaism and its teachings, along with the
rest of the academic world – something that was once known as Modern
Orthodoxy.
To conclude, I feel the need to recall one of the most upsetting
arguments I have ever had in my lifetime (and trust me I get into
arguments with a solid amount of foolish people):
It was about a year ago on a regional NCSY Shabbaton where I was an
advisor – in charge of teaching and inspiring high school students. It
is through this organization that I have had the pleasure of teaching
and inspiring handfuls of turned-off high school students to learn more
about Judaism, including helping them chose a yeshiva program or even
thrive in their Judaism throughout their college years. It was a
Shabbat afternoon and I was chatting with one of the seniors about
various Jewish topics. The boy, lets call him J, to hide his identity,
asked me a question regarding using magical amulets to cure illnesses ( a
topic which the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat devotes much attention to).
As any Jewish educator should do, I explained to him the two major
opinions in regards to the efficacy of such items. The first being the
opinion that they work and the second (that of the Rambam and many other
greats in the “rationalist camp”) being that such items are bogus and
at best a placebo and do not actually work.
The answer of the Rambam greatly interested J and apparently a few
other students since when I finished giving my answer there was a group
of 5-7 other students surrounding us. Many of them expressed to me that
they had never believed that there was such thing as magic and were
overcome with joy that their were prominent Jewish scholars who had felt
the same way. After all, how would these students have know the
Rambam’s view on such things? They had only each been in Jewish day
school since they were 4 and gone to Shul almost every week of their
lives!
Anyways, the conversation evolved into talking about the Rambam’s
view of magic and miracles in other contexts and that was when things
turned sour. A man, probably late twenties, wearing a suit and black
hat, stepped in and said that the Rambam makes no sense – “of course
their is such thing as magic” he said confidently, “my rabbi told many
stories which he has heard directly from descendants of the Chazon Ish,
of the Chazon Ish himself performing crazy miracles”. I politely asked
this man to allow us to continue our conversation in peace, when he
snapped back that he was on of the few people in charge of the entire
Shabbaton and he did not like the fact that I was teaching these
children lies. I sighed and then asked him to go into further details
about the “miracles” that the Chazon Ish performed.
I do not remember the full list, but I do remember that at the end of
his list he stopped and said “Oh, yeah and the Chazon Ish discovered a
cure for cancer at the end of his life due to his deep knowledge of
Torah.” Since then I have learned that this is a very common belief
amongst many Jewish fundamentalists, but back then I had never heard
this claim before so I then asked the question that any reasonable
person would ask in response to this: “so where did the cure go?” The
man smiled and said that the Chazon Ish knew that the next illness was
going to be much worse so he hid the cure for cancer and never revealed
it. At this point I could see the bewilderment of the group of the
growing number of high school students who had taken interest in our
discussion. I rebutted that if the Chazon Ish knew the cure for cancer
and refused to tell anyone then he should be viewed as a murderer. The
man’s face turned red, but before he could say anything I asked the next
rational question. “So based on the Chazon Ish’s actions do you think
that we should be engaging in trying to find a cure for this deadly
illness?” I will never forget his answer. He sort of shrugged his
shoulders and said “well, I would never publicly say this, but if the
Chazon Ish was against publicizing a cure, who are we to decide
otherwise”
While this is an extreme example, this is the general direction of
what the future of Judaism holds if we do not take a stand. Imagine a
world where the average age of death is 30, most babies die before
turning 1, and our knowledge of the universe is based on ancient
mythologies. That my friends, is what the world would be like if it was
run by fundamentalists who are anti human progress in any sense of the
word. Fundamentalists do not only break the Jewish tradition of truth
seeking, healthy debate, and bettering humanity, but they wish to
forcibly silence anyone who values these important Jewish pastimes. We
need to come together as a community and refuse to hire such people for
positions within our community. Just as there are no non-charedim
teaching in schools in Meah Sharim, there should be no Charedim or
Yeshivish teachers in our communities. If one wants to live in a world
that is anti-science, anti-ration, and anti human progress, with all who
disagree stopped, then please go back in time to 15th century Europe or
build a massive wall around your neighborhood or something- but please,
do not pretend that you are continuing the tradition of our beloved
Judaism.
The Enemy Within-Part Three-Chassidism Is Not Judaism - From The UOJ Classics Originally Posted January 30, 2007
Make no mistake, Chassidism is not part of authentic Judaism. In matter
of fact it is closer to Christianity than to Judaism. Orthodox Jews
believe that ALL of the principles of Judaism were given to Moshe at
Sinai. The written Torah and the oral Torah were dictated to Moshe by
Hashem for the forty days he was at Sinai. The roots of the Chassidic
movement did not begin until the thirteenth century, when Moses De-Leon
started the writings of the Zohar. About three hundred years later,
Isaac Luria (ARI) started preaching this mystic garble. The Ari as he
was known, was an enigma. He purported to preach the thoughts of Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai, who lived fifteen hundred years earlier. The problem
is that there was no known link of mesorah or chain of events, going
back to that time, from RSBY to him or to De-Leon....
In this July 18,
2003, file photo, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and his wife,
Vanessa, hold hands during a news conference at the Staples Center in
Los Angeles.
On June 30, 2003, Kobe Bryant arrived at the Cordillera Lodge
and Spa in Edwards, Colorado. After a frustrating season that saw the
Los Angeles Lakers fail to win a fourth straight championship, Bryant
was in town for an operation on his knee.
A 19-year-old concierge at the hotel showed the superstar and his
security team to their rooms, and caught his eye. Bryant, a new father
of a six-month-old daughter, made small talk with the blonde, and once
they arrived at his room, he took her aside and requested that she come
back later to give him a private tour of the hotel. She obliged, and
after the tour and mild flirtations, Bryant invited her into his hotel
room.
Just five minutes later, the woman exited the room, disheveled and
reportedly distraught. Her underwear was bloody, as was Bryant’s shirt.
She told her friend, a bellboy at the hotel, about the encounter that
night, and after making sure the woman got home safely, the bellboy
went home and told his father. The next day, after recounting the
incident to her mother, the woman reported it to police.
Whether or not Bryant and the woman engaged in sexual activity that
night is not in question — Bryant admitted to cheating on his wife,
Vanessa. But the woman he claimed to have committed adultery with said
she did not consent to that activity.
And thus, those five minutes became the center of one of the most
high-profile rape cases of all time. As Jeffrey Scott Shapiro put it in
his book, Kobe Bryant: The Game Of His Life, the case came down to two words: yes or no.
Bryant is set to play his final NBA game on Wednesday. Tickets are
going for $25,000, and he’s being celebrated and honored by athletes and
movie stars, rap artists and clothing brands. His career as a
basketball player certainly merits that. In 20 years with the Los
Angeles Lakers, Bryant won five NBA championships, one MVP award, and
was named to the NBA All-Star team 18 times. He is, without a doubt, a
legend.
But as fun as it is to reflect on his career and the mark he left on
the sport, it’s also important to remember what happened off the court.
Though the criminal charges were ultimately dropped after 15 months and
the civil case was settled behind closed doors, the Kobe Bryant rape
case left behind a legacy of victim blaming, media sensationalism, and
image repair that still influences society — and other high-profile rape
cases — to this day.
Victim Blaming
It didn’t take long for a bonafide media circus to descend upon the
small Colorado town. On July 2, both the alleged victim and Bryant were
taken to the hospital for examinations. There was a small bruise around
her neck, and she had tears on her vaginal wall. An arrest warrant was
issued for Bryant on July 4th, and on July 18th, charges were filed.
As soon as the charges against Bryant became public, media and fans
alike honed in on the alleged victim. Who was this young girl who had
the audacity to threaten one of the greatest, most well-respected
athletes on the planet with life in prison?
She was a sexually active teenager who had attempted suicide twice
and been briefly hospitalized for mental illness. She was an aspiring
singer who had once tried out for American Idol. She had a
lingering crush on her ex-boyfriend. So very quickly, a picture was
painted of a fame-hungry, unstable woman who would do anything for
attention.
Kobe Bryant, left, and his attorney Pamela Mackey, center.
Unfortunately, narratives like this seem to emerge almost any time a
woman accuses a famous man of violence. But what made the Bryant case
notable was the lengths to which the defense team would go to encourage
that victim-blaming narrative.
“In the Kobe Bryant case, it was abominable how the accuser was
treated. Everyone was at fault,” Mark Shaw, an attorney and author who
covered the case for ESPN and USA Today, told ThinkProgress. “This poor
woman, they wore her down, and it happened from the first hearings.”
The preliminary hearing in October 2003 was supposed to merely be a
chance for the judge to decide whether there was enough evidence to
require a trial. But Bryant’s attorney, Pamela Mackey, used it as a
chance to smear the alleged victim’s reputation.
Not only did Mackey use the alleged victim’s name a staggering six
times during the hearing, but when she was presented with the woman’s
vaginal injuries, Mackey used the victim’s sexual history against her.
The high-powered lawyer brought the hearing to a screeching halt,
asking, “Could it be that [the alleged victim’s] injuries were caused by
having sex with three men in three days?”
As Shapiro wrote in his book, Mackey’s tactic was an effective one,
because that became the story of the day, and not the evidence displayed
by Deputy District Attorney Gregg Crittenden and Eagle County Sheriff’s
Detective Doug Winters.
And that evidence, such as the retelling of the statements the alleged victim gave to officers the day after the attack, deserved attention.
When Bryant began groping her, the woman said she tried
to flee but the athlete barred her way and grabbed her by the neck,
Winters said. “She was afraid that he was going to choke her.”
Then, the woman said, Bryant turned her around, pushed her against a
chair, pulled down her panties and raped her. She tearfully said “no”
twice but was ignored, Winters said. At one point, Bryant “stated that
he liked Vail, Colo.,” he said.
Five minutes later, it was over, Winters said, and Bryant made her kiss his genitals. Then he told her to “go clean up.”
Just days before the criminal case went to trial, the alleged victim
decided to stop cooperating and the charges were dropped. Up until that
moment, she had been put through the ringer. She had friends,
acquaintances, and even strangers accept money from the tabloids or
gifts from television producers to tell stories — some the truth with a
spin to it, others outright lies. Photos of the alleged victim were also
leaked and plastered all over magazines in the supermarket. Even the
Eagle County court contributed to the onslaught, by inadvertently making
private court documents public.
As Shaw wrote at the time,
“with her identity known, her past sex life revealed, her mental state
common knowledge, and her life in shambles due to constant anguish about
the motive behind the charges, it is no wonder that she threw in the
towel.”
Because the case received so much coverage, everyone, even those not
paying close attention, saw what happened to the alleged victim. It’s
nearly impossible to measure that impact. According to Shapiro’s book,
however, there are other women who had similar encounters with Bryant —
one in particular who was able to escape before an assault occurred —
who wouldn’t cooperate with the Colorado trial because of how the
alleged victim in that case was treated.
In the immediate aftermath of the hearing, it was no surprise that
sexual assault reporting declined dramatically at the alleged victim’s
school, the University of Northern Colorado.
“How many women remember the Kobe Bryant case and don’t file a rape charge?” Shaw said.
It’s hard to tell if this case impacted national reporting statistics, but 68 percent
of rapes still go unreported. And it’s worth noting that in other cases
where a high-profile athlete — such as Greg Hardy, Ben Roethlisberger,
and Patrick Kane — has been accused of violence against women, the
alleged victims have been smeared in a similar way. In the Kane case, it
was leaked that traces of DNA from other men were found in the alleged
victim’s underwear. Hardy’s alleged victim had her drug use and relationship with rapper Nelly dragged through the media. One of the two women
who accused Roethlisberger of rape was said to have a “history of using
sex and lies to get what she wanted.” None of these women decided to
cooperate with or pursue criminal charges.
One positive, if there is such a thing, to come out of the Bryant
case was the improved rape shield laws in Colorado. Rape shield laws are
supposed to protect the victim’s identity in cases and limit the
ability for her past sexual activity to be brought into evidence.
According to Karen Steinhauser, a Family Law and Criminal Defense
attorney in Colorado, at the time of the Bryant hearing, rape shield
laws didn’t apply to preliminary hearings in the state, which is why
Mackey could push the envelope so far. Now they do.
However, rape shield laws are still far from perfect, and many still
allow judges plenty of loopholes to permit an alleged victim’s sexual
history into evidence. Linda Seabrook, general counsel for Futures
Without Violence, a nonprofit that aims to end domestic violence and
sexual assault, said those loopholes perpetuate the mistrust of the
judicial system. And that mistrust will lead fewer victims to seek
justice.
“Sexual assault has always been one of the lowest reported crimes,”
Steinhauser said. “There’s this mentality of blame the victim, but
victims do enough blaming of themselves. So many victims decide it’s not
worth it.”
The Media’s Ability To Perpetuate Rape Myths
While Bryant’s defense team and the tabloids were certainly
responsible for festering the victim-blaming culture of the case, the
mainstream media itself didn’t do much to squelch it.
“The media in the Bryant case was as guilty as anyone else,” Shaw
said. “They were enamored by Kobe, a good looking star, married with a
baby. They wanted to get an interview with him, and the poor girl was
left to suffer.”
Renae Franiuk, a professor of psychology at Aurora University and an
avid sports fan, watched the media coverage of the case with interest,
and noticed that a lot of it seemed to be slanted against the alleged
victim. She was curious as to whether she was just overly sensitive to
it due to her job, or if it was an actual problem, so she set out to do a study.
For the study, Franiuk honed in on rape myths, which are “generalized
and widely held beliefs about sexual assault that serve to trivialize
the sexual assault or suggest that a sexual assault did not actually
occur.”
She then divided the myths into standard common categories, and
studied both articles and headlines about the Bryant case for
endorsements or challenges of these myths. She also studied the articles
for positive and negative statements about the alleged victim and
Bryant, and headlines for the choice of the word “accuser” versus
“alleged victim,” since the former has been proven to elicit sympathy
with the accused.
Franiuk’s findings were staggering. First of all, only 13 of the 156
articles studied actually countered rape myths — that is, mentioned how
rarely women lie about rape, or how entering a hotel room with a man
isn’t the same as consenting to sex with him. On average, there were
1.66 myth-endorsing statements per article, with over 65 percent of the
articles having at least one endorsing statement.
Additionally, 27 percent of the articles studied had positive
comments about Bryant as a person or an athlete, while only 5 percent of
the articles had positive statements about the victim as a person. And
whereas 42.3 percent of the articles questioned the victim’s honesty,
only 7.7 percent questioned Kobe’s.
Though less extreme, a similar pattern was discovered in headlines,
which are often the only information readers take in. Almost 10 percent
of the headlines studied endorsed rape myths. Headlines used the word
“accuser” 23 percent of the time, compared to about 1 percent each for
“alleged victim” or “victim.” Overall, 11 percent of the headlines were
pro-Bryant, while only 5.2 percent pro-alleged victim.
Why does this even matter? Well, Franiuk’s study accounted for that
too, and found that after reading articles that endorsed rape myths,
people were far more likely to side with the accused than the alleged
victim. Whether they intended to or not, the media shaped the public’s
perception of the case.
Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, right, holds
up balloons that his family brought out to him during a ceremony to
celebrate Bryant becoming third on the NBA all-time scoring list.
“The rape myths perpetuated in the media are a reflection of women’s
inferior status in our culture and our culture’s defensive reaction to a
heinous crime,” she wrote in the study. “Moreover, rape myths in the
media teach rape myths to those who do not already hold them, strengthen
rape myths in those who already do, and trigger rape myths in those who
are ready to use them.”
While there haven’t been similar studies on recent rape cases, there
is reason to believe that many of the problems in Franiuk’s 2008 study
are still present in media today. When NHL star Patrick Kane was accused
of rape last fall, many reporters chose to focus on his athletic
talents while perpetuating rape myths
and spreading unsubstantiated rumors about the alleged victim.
Meanwhile, when alleged victims don’t go through with pressing charges
or an undisclosed civil settlement is reached, athletes such as Ben
Roethlisberger, who was accused of sexual assault by two women, are
allowed to let their performance in their chosen sport serve as redemption.
“These people believing these myths don’t want people to be sexually
assaulted, and, ironically, that’s why they don’t believe the women,”
Franiuk said. “It’s easier to believe the myths because you don’t want
to believe that sexual assault is possible, but then that disbelief just
makes the problem of sexual assault worse.”
The only way to stop this cycle, according to Franiuk, is by getting
educated about the issue and speaking up about it. Everyone needs to be
educated about both healthy sex and sexual assault at a young age, and
journalists in particular need to know how to report it. (There are greatresourcesavailable
for reporters on the topic.) Once educated, they need to be outspoken
against it — Franiuk particularly mentioned the significance of Terry
Bradshaw passionately speaking out against Hardy last fall.
“We need media members to be more unapologetically vocal about this,” she said.
There Is Life After A Rape Accusation
Not even 24 hours after the charges were dropped in the Bryant rape
case, the media had moved away from questions of guilt or innocence,
motive and opportunity, and on to more pressing matters: Would Kobe ever
be able to repair his image?
Despite the fact that the dust from the criminal case hadn’t even
settled yet, it was a legitimate question. After all, both McDonalds and
Sprite had suspended relationships with the superstar after the charges
were filed, and even if people didn’t pay attention to the sordid
details of the case — the alleged victim’s blood on his shirt, the
vaginal tearing — there was still the fact that he had cheated on his
wife. Bryant was no longer the NBA’s ultimate family man.
Nearly 13 years later, it’s safe to say that Kobe’s image is just fine. Last year, he was 10th on the Forbes list of highest-paid athletes,
and between broadcasting and endorsements, coaching and management, his
future is filled with opportunities all over the world.
“He’s got real international cachet and popularity,” Bob Dorfman, editor of the Sports Marketers Scouting Report, told CNN.
These days, most people seem to remember the infamous $4 million
“apology ring” that Bryant bought his wife after the charges became
public more than they remember the accusations. People remember that the
charges were dropped, but they don’t remember the statement that Kobe
released when they were:
Although I truly believe this encounter between us was
consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this
incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery,
listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now
understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.
Of course, Bryant’s privilege has a lot to do with how quickly he has
bounced back, but it’s also worth noting that this theory — that women
accuse high-profile athletes of rape or domestic violence to become rich
and famous and destroy the life of the accused — doesn’t actually pan
out in reality.
While Jameis Winston — who was accused of raping a fellow student at
Florida State University — has gone on to be an NFL star, his alleged
victim had to drop out of school due to the abuse she received. Hardy’s
ex-girlfriend recently said that she’s had to move twice, change her
phone number multiple times, and even consider changing her name due to
the harassment she has received. Hardy, meanwhile, was signed with the
Dallas Cowboys even after the domestic abuse allegations, and is
reportedly only having a hard time finding a spot on an NFL team now
because he was often late to practice. Kane’s alleged victim reportedly
had to relocate as well, while Kane is winning awards for his play this
season.
It’s impossible to know what Bryant’s present status would be if his
rape case had gone differently — if the accuser’s past had not been
viciously put on trial, if the media hadn’t irresponsibly condoned rape
myths, and if Bryant and his alleged victim had both gotten their day in
court.
Barack Obama stands with Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.
There’s also no way of knowing what would happen if the charges had been brought today.
Ever since the video of NFL running back Ray Rice punching out his
then-fiance in an Atlantic City elevator became public, the media has
been slightly more careful with the language it uses when talking about
alleged victims and violence against women. There is also an increased
awareness about the inadequacies of the justice system, and more
pressure on leagues such as the NBA to independently investigate and
punish the personal conduct of its players. So if Bryant was charged
with sexual assault presently, it’s likely the NBA would be under
pressure to take disciplinary action.
However, that’s no guarantee that things would have turned out
differently. After all, the victim-blaming tactics used in Kobe’s case,
both by the defense team and the media, have been utilized in big-time
cases recently, and the results have been similarly successful for the
athletes.
All we know for sure is that 13 years ago, Bryant’s alleged victim
was forced to move out of her hometown due to safety concerns. She was
last seen during the civil case, married and pregnant, and hasn’t been
heard of in public since, except for the occasional rumor on the
underbelly of the internet.
Meanwhile, Bryant is now a father of two. He and Vanessa briefly
filed for divorce, but have since reunited. Kobe was able to finish out
his career with the Lakers, winning two more NBA championships and
climbing to third on the list of all-time scorers in NBA history. He’s
an icon of the sport, and of our culture.
But as the legend bids goodbye, those close to the case can’t help but wonder, “What if?”
“Every time I see Kobe Bryant on television playing basketball, I
think about how lucky he is,” Shaw said. “Based on the evidence I knew
about… he should be in prison.”
