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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Gedolim Made Me Do It!

An Important Reader Writes......

On Septpember 24, 2003, Torah U'Mesorah, The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, the umbrella organization for more than 700 yeshivas and day schools in the United States and Canada, that teach Torah and general studies to more than 200,000 Jewish children, sent out a confidential 3-page document regarding child sex abuse to all of their member schools. Relevant excerpts appear below:

"At recent meetings of the Rabbinical Board of Torah Umesorah, attended by Rav Dovid Feinstein, Rav Yitzchok Feigelstock, Rav Aharon Feldman, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Rav Avrohom Chaim Levin, Rav Yaakov Perlow and Rav Aaron Schechter, shlita, the following statement concerning a painful issue was issued:

We address ourselves to the problem of child molestation in our community. A small number of individuals have caused untold pain to many children, primarily varying in age from three to fourteen. In addition to the sins which they have committed, they have created painful memories in the minds of their victims, memories which can have a devastating lifetime impact.

It is incumbent upon everyone to use every means to stop these violations of children, including, at times, exposing the identities of the abusers and even their incarceration....."


Rabbi Elyashiv Comments.....

A ruling by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv appears in Yeshurun, a compendium of articles on Halacha, in which the rabbi says it is permissible, in certain cases, to hand over a child abuser to the American police. Elyashiv, considered the most important interpreter of Halacha by Ashkenazi Haredim, said that it was permitted to inform the government in cases in which, "It is clear that he has committed a foul deed, and that this [informing] constitutes a sort of repair of the world." Elyashiv adds another condition, according to which the situation must be that, "Someone is abusing a boy or girl such that we are unable to stop him from continuing his evil actions."