Agudath Israel and New York's Child Victim's Act
For the 5th
time in a decade, Agudath Israel rabbis led by the “Gedolim” are
lobbying with the great moral leaders of our time, the Catholic Church,
to try to defeat New York's Child Victim's Act. The Child Victim's Act
would eliminate the insanely short statute of limitations for child sex
crimes and allow New York's child sex predators to be prosecuted.
You can already see why Agudath Israel and the Catholic Church would be alarmed.
The
outrageousness of their combined efforts is sickening. It is incredible
to me that Agudah rabbis have little in common with Conservative,
Reform, Reconstructionist or even liberal Orthodox Jews, but they have
lots in common with the Catholic Church.
To
better understand Agudah, it's important to examine who in the Catholic
Church Agudah has decided to cozy up to. Cardinal Timothy Dolan (the
guy wearing the cross - it's hard to tell these guys apart by their
moral positions on child sexual abuse) used to be the head of the
Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
It
has been estimated that the Milwaukee Diocese has had at least 8,000
child sex abuse victims who were preyed-upon by 100 priests. It was
revealed that pedophile priests in Dolan's Diocese were paid off to
quietly leave the Diocese. No police, no warnings to parents, no therapy
for the kids and most importantly to the Church, no money for its
thousands of victims.
But
the Church didn't get away with it. The Milwaukee Diocese eventually
went bankrupt due to huge settlement payments to the victims. It was
later revealed that Dolan asked for and received Vatican approval to
move $57 million dollars out of the Diocese bank account before victims
could be paid.
Now
that you know who the guy wearing the cross is sitting next to Rabbi
Dovid Zweibel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel, we can better
examine Agudath Israel's shameful explanations as to why they need to
spend so much time and energy fighting to kill the Child Victim's Act.
“Our concern is simply protecting the economic viability of Jewish schools. Yeshivas operate on shoestring budgets.” Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudath Israel of America's director of public affairs
JTA - May 2, 2016
“Stated
simply, legislation that would do away with the statute of limitations
completely, even if only for a one-year period, could subject schools
and other vital institutions to ancient claims and capricious
litigation, and place their very existence in severe jeopardy. Agudath
Israel and Torah Umesorah most vigorously oppose any such legislation.”
Joint statement of Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah, April 21, 2009
When
I read these two statements, it appears that what Agudah is saying is
that protecting Jewish schools and yeshivas are far more important than
passing legislation that will protect the children who attend them.
Otherwise, the statements should have read:
“We
will stop at nothing to protect our children from harm and sexual
abuse. Even if that means that Jewish schools and yeshivas who for
decades enabled abusers and ignored our children's cries for help will
have to pay for their negligence.”
Do you see the difference?
The second statement is also signed by Torah Umesorah.
This is truly scary.
Torah
Umesorah has 760 Orthodox schools in its network educating 250,000
children across the U.S. If you have a child or grandchild, niece or
nephew in an Orthodox school in the U.S., they are probably in a Torah
Umesorah school.
Think
about this – if you are a parent paying tuition to one of these
schools, your money is funding a lobbying effort to keep in place laws
that allow Orthodox men to sexually abuse Jewish children and never face
prosecution. Did you know that this is what your child's school is
doing with your money? Are you O.K. with that?
You
might want to have a chat with your school's principal and ask them to
stop spending your tuition money to endanger your child's welfare.
The
second statement from Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah justifies their
lobbying efforts because they don't want to expose their schools to
“ancient claims and capricious litigation”.
The
phrase “ancient claims” implies that there is some kind of statute of
limitations on criminal child sexual abuse in Torah law, by which
victims lose their rights after an arbitrary number of years have passed
since they were molested.
News flash to Rabbis Zweibel, Shafran and all the “gedolim” of Agudath Israel – JUDAISM DOESN'T HAVE A STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS!
Rabbis
- on what halachic basis do you assert that child sex abuse claims
should ever be dismissed in the victim's lifetime? Either the victim has
proof and evidence of the crime or the claim gets thrown out. That's
how justice works.
What
you're doing is ignoring Torah law and denying justice to Orthodox
victims in order to protect your precious schools and jobs.
What
good are your schools and yeshivas if the children who get raped and
sexually abused there leave Judaism in disgust, as many victims already
have? Is this what you're proud of and have dedicated your lives to? Do
you think that God really wants you to protect a bunch of bricks at the
expense of destroying Jewish kids' souls?