Lifting the Veil of Silence
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz - Editor Yated Ne'eman
There is an issue that has been on my mind for several years. It is an extremely sensitive topic and I tried writing about it many times but couldn’t find the right words with which to express what I wanted to say in a way that would be beneficial and adhere to standards of derech eretz and fairness.
I have discussed my predicament with many gedolim and they all encouraged me to write about it here in the Yated and said that Hashem would help me find the proper voice.
The sad fact is that children in our community are being abused by perpetrators who prey upon their innocence and our silence. We don’t have a count of how many people are hurt, but it is much larger than we realized, even a short time ago. There is no real debate about the catastrophic effects of abuse.
The innocence and purity of children is destroyed for life. The victims remain hurt, shamed and scarred. They suffer in silence, afraid to reveal their secret to anyone. They are hounded by feelings of guilt and embarrassment and live lives of tortured pain. The overwhelming majority of survivors suffer in silence, unless they are lucky enough to endure agonizing, arduous, expensive therapy. However, even a lifetime of therapy doesn’t ensure that the victim can ever be fully healthy again. Not every young victim’s psyche can be healed. Victims are much more likely to go off the derech, become addicted to drugs and lead a life of abusing themselves and others.
Let us be clear: For too long, we weren’t tuned in to these innocent victims’ stories and their pain. For too long, we weren’t sufficiently aware that this problem existed and thus were able to ignore the quiet pleas, the sad eyes, the pained lives, and the personalities withdrawn. We didn’t recognize the warning signs and thus largely ignored the phenomenon. Equally clear, this inattention was not a function of some high level conspiracy to harm people or cover up for criminals or abet nefarious activities. It was simply a function of a lack of education about a complex and highly sophisticated problem. It was a result of our leadership simply being unaware of the depths that such sordid people could sink to, and the extreme skill perpetrators exhibit in covering their tracks. And yes, it was undeniably a gezeirah, which, as so often is the case, claims innocent holy souls - bikroyvai Ekodeish.
I am all too aware that it is fashionable in certain circles to blame this all on our rabbinic leadership. These people have yet to explain why our rabbonim, who devote their lives to serving people, would want to hurt anyone. The days when being a rov or rosh yeshiva meant strictly paskening shailos or teaching Torah are long gone. Rabbonim routinely spend an overwhelming portion of their time dealing with every type of personal problem imaginable. I don’t have to elaborate on this now, but suffice it to say that it defies logic to accuse our most choshuve leaders, who exhibit much mesiras nefesh, of coldhearted indifference. As I said, the problem was a lack of understanding.
Those days are behind us. We understand our challenges now and we have to live up to them. There are many things we have to do to help prevent future cases. In fact, in recent years, much has been accomplished. It would probably surprise some of the critics to know that in the past five years, the Vaad Roshei Yeshivah of Torah Umesorah has devoted many meetings, encompassing scores of hours, to these issues. As one who regularly attends these meetings, I can tell you that no single subject has been discussed in greater length and depth, in excruciating detail, than preventing abuse. Many sophisticated guidelines and programs have been designed and disseminated in all our schools. Implementation has not been universal, but we have clearly begun to turn the tide in the school area. I will devote another article to detail some of these efforts. Today, I want to focus on the topic I began with - the innocent victims.
We almost never do anything for these victims. We look at them as small children. We don’t peer into their little hearts. We don’t follow up with them. We don’t do anything to assuage their piercing pain and harrowing hurt. Usually, we don’t know who the victims are, for their parents are petrified lest they be stigmatized for life.
They go through life distressed and tormented, and the fact that they think that we don’t care adds insult to injury and makes the wounds that much more difficult to heal. They think that if we would know what happened to them, we wouldn’t respond with compassion and love. They think that the world around them would turn a deaf ear to their cries and be uninterested in their stories.
So they go through life feeling isolated, betrayed and abandoned. It is about time that as a community we join together and shout out to them that we have been silent for too long. We have been oblivious for too long. And we are going to do something about it. This is what we say:
“We realize it wasn’t your fault. We realize you didn’t do anything wrong. We realize that you were singled out for punishment due to no fault of your own. We realize you were taken advantage of. We love you. We care about you. We are here for you. We will listen and we will hear. You are not alone.”
We have to get a message to the children who have been wronged that they don’t have to resort to drugs or worse to cleanse themselves and restore their self respect and self worth.
How do we get that message across? Neither by being quiet, nor by being shrill. First we strengthen those groups in our machane who are devoted to counseling and aiding victims. We tell the victims they are innocent; we feel their pain and are here to help them. We prove that by continuing to implement parent and community-wide education and prophylactic programs to prevent future horrors. Above all, we deliver the message by living lives of Torah - a Toras Chesed and Toras Emes - by being kind and compassionate to all. We do it by not embarrassing anyone and not jumping to conclusions about the reasons people act the way they do. We must conduct ourselves to all with true love and compassion. We should treat victims like brothers, without prejudice, never knowing what pain and hurt lies in their hearts, forcing them to act the way they do.
One thing is clear: silence is acquiescence. Silence permits the affliction to fester. We must be prepared to lift the veil off the more embarrassing goings-on in our communities so that we rid ourselves of evil and malice and the pain they cause. We will thus be preparing the world for the coming of Moshiach and the erasure of all tears.
21 comments:
THE RABBINIC AND LAYLEADERS OF THE CHICAGO RABBINIC COUNCIL APPLAUD RAV PINCHOS LIPSCHUTZ FOR SAYING WHAT SO DESPERATELY NEEDED SAYING
There will be a backlash. The Empire will strike back.
Kulo sheker.
Rodef Emes
Lip shits, you Frum elitist Borsalino-wearing moral coward;
Let me ax you uh question:
Why did you decide to come out of your Groundhog bunker now?
You mean to say in all these years as Editor of the Yated, knowing fully well what was going 'down',
in the Yeshivas, Homes, and Mikvahs, aware of the D-ASS Toiyrah cover ups and obfuscations which enabled the molesters to continue to destroy Yiddeshe neshomas, you didn't say one frickin' word.
Now? you take to pen and paper at the behest of and with the "moral" sanctioning of the same culpable D-ASS Toiyrah feckless Rabbinic 'Leaders' who all need an Eglah Arufah for Atonement, and robe yourself in the mantle of Tzidkus and trailblazing moral leadership?
Adaraba, you have continuously written Page-3 editorials sermonizing to your Readers on the importance of building people up by eschewing Loshon Hora, Mesirah, and Sinas Chinum which further pushed the Molestees and their suffering families back into their dark cold closets.
You had a moral responsibility to be at the front of the line with UOJ, not a Pinny-come-lately much like the Nesiyim who were the last ones to bring materials for the building of the Mikdosh.
Who knows how many jumpers, drug overdozers, etc. could have been prevented if you would have used your very influential position and voice to show moral courage on this issue.
Look down at your hands Pinny; there is Jewish Blood on them.
The only plus is: Better Late Than Never. But it's time now for you to get your pen out of your Tush and STOP already with writing the mushy pablum crap above and do two things:
1. Come out now forcefully and continuously for passage of the Markey Bill in your Editorials.
2. Put the spotlight on the Zwiebel, R' Perlow, and the Agudah to fall in lockstep with this program.
It's the least you can do.
We'll be watching.
A lot of hot air. Not one word about how to deal with the molesters. Not one word about going to the police. "We are here for you. We will listen and we will hear." And what will you do about it? What will you do to punish the perpetrators? What will you do to prevent more victims? It's so nice to hear how much you care about the victims. That's so compassionate of you. This guy is so out of touch with reality, it's pathetic.
All he's interested in doing is protecting his bosses and making excuses for them. Oh, they didn't know, they didn't understand, blah, blah, blah. They all knew more than any of us did because the victims confided in them. They chose to sweep it all under the carpet, not because they are bad and evil, but to protect their institutions. Until this day, this is the modus operandi in the overwhelming majority of chareidi yeshivos. Ask UTA Satmar, ask RBS in Israel and ask Rabbi Levin about "protecting EVERYBODY". Until I see one, just one, Rosh Yeshiva of a major chareidi instiution stand up and proclaim that victims must go to the police, or that he will reveal the name of any molester in his yeshiva, I am totally unconvinced that anything has changed. The fashionable response now is to make statements about how much they love and care about the victims. Why, even Zwiebel showed up at Hikind's rally as a "neutral observer". Until we hear and see concrete steps that will be taken to rid ourselves of this scourge (like the RCA resolutions), do not be taken in by any of this fluff that they're dishing out. Maybe we should send Pinny on a paid junket to talk with some of these victims that he claims to love. Maybe then he will learn to write articles more like Rabbi Horowitz and less like Avi Shafran.
"When are we going to finally realize that the molesters and abusers in our community are rodfim and evil monsters that must be reported, arrested, and l’maan Hashem locked up with the key thrown away?"- Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz 3/26/08
The saddest thing of all is that the steps that need to be taken to prevent today’s innocent children from future abuse are not terribly complicated. From my vantage point; all it takes is to:
1. Raise the awareness level by having community leaders write and speak about this issue in a forthright and unequivocal manner
2. Teach our parents and educators how to speak to their children about personal privacy. And this can be easily done in a modest, Torah-appropriate manner.
3. Develop the righteous indignation to finally protect our children by sending a clear message that those who molest them will be treated like the rodfim and murderers they are – reported to the authorities, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
- Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz 9/3/08
"As such it is already well established by our own Poskim that an abuser is to be considered a Rodef (literally, a pursuer), effectively poised to destroy innocent lives and, therefore, virtually all means may be used to stop him and bring him to justice. Communities and day schools-with the blessing of Gedolei Yisroel-have encouraged and facilitated the reporting of these crimes to the local authorities, who are most equipped to investigate and prosecute these complex claims. In the past, mistakes were made in handling these situations."- Vaad Harabbonim of Baltimore, 4/11/07
Its neo-Christian, the religion of love.
Notice the timing. The Markey one-year window bill has the best chance in four years to pass both houses of the NYS Legislature, because the Senate turned Democratic. Now Aguda and Torah U'Mesorah wake up and smell the coffee. Their wallets may be pinched. So they proclaim, like a chazir showing its kosher feet, We love you, We care. Come, let us pray together.
Oh, the bullshit. The bullshit.
Bullshit is too kind a word to describe this. Yedie Esav are in fact trying to show their chazer paws as split hooves.
Why did Hashem make the masses of Frum Jews stupider than shvartzes? Why??????
What will it take to wake them up?
Please, UOJ, do you have any ideas. I feel that although they seem to be buckling, the forces of evil are still strong, and the fight is still long. What can we do? Yated is NOT going to publish any letters from any of us.
"The gedolim have had many meetings".
They only need one that would take 5 minutes. Issue a Koyl Koreh that says:
Lmaan Hashem, parents keep your kids away from Moshe Eiseman, Yudi Kolko, Avrahm Reichman and Aron Tendler. Stop sending them to Torah Tmimah until Margolis resigns and hands the keys over to someone who cares about Jewish kids' safety. And please, stop going to Reb Matisyahu Salomon when your kid is molested, but go to the police like the Baltimore Vaad letter said and the psak from Rav Elyahsiv says to do.
signed...
all the mofos who signed the f-ing Lipa Shmeltzer ban.
No more meeting necessary. No more Pinny Lip-shits alligator tears need to be cried. Just for once, Lmaan Hashem, could someone on the Moetzes grow testicles and act like a mature adult???????
"These people have not explained why our rabbonim who devote their lives to serving people would want to hurt someone..."
What an asshole!
Why would a Rebby who devotes his life to teaching kids molest them? Maybe becasue the only reason he wants to teach is to molest.
Maybe the only reason the Rabbonim serve people is for power and kavod and $$$$$. The reason they would want to hurt people, Pinny, you moron, is because they LIKE it. Just like Eiesman and Kolko and Mondrowitz.
In Lakewood this Shabbos, a rabbi was told that Shua Finkelstien had been abused. This wise man responded "We all are. What is abuse? It is using power to hurt people for personal benefit. That is what the Lakewood community is all about!"
The molesters have screwed hundreds maybe thousands, but our "Gedolim" have screwed Gantz Klal Yisroel.
Hashem Yerachem.
Talk about adding insult to injury.
This guy is actually trying to insult our intelligence calling us all idiots. Its almost as bad as David Mandel saying in the Jewish Observer that "The amount the Gedolim have spoken out against sexual abuse is astounding".
How can they look their readership in the eyes with a straight face and say this?
Unfotuantely they get away with it because most frum people are morons. Sad but true. Not bad people, just not too sharp. Maybe Hitler ym"sh, killed off our better genetic specimens.
Lipshutz calls it a "gezeira min hashamayim"....no....it was bechira chofshis, that our cruel and heartless "I'm a rav in Boro Park not Flatbush...no penetration no foul...screw you, we are the gedolim and we can allow your molestation and you can't do anything to stop us...we are proud of the fact that we have the honor to sweeep these matters under the carpet" bastards that caused this. Don't go shifting the blame onto G-d. He does NOT like it when you do that. Trust me on that one.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Hikind backpedals: Insists confrontational approach will turn Orthodox leaders against him
http://www.forward.com/articles/104261/
Hikind Retreating On Tough Tactics Against Molesters
By Rebecca Dube
Published March 25, 2009, issue of April 03, 2009.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, a leading voice in the fight to end child sexual abuse in Orthodox communities, is backing down from some of his previous claims and backing away from one of his most confrontational stands against an alleged pedophile.
In an interview with the Forward, Hikind dramatically scaled down a previously reported estimate of the number of abuse cases he knew about. He also said he could not keep a pledge to force a prominent yeshiva to remove an alleged pedophile from its staff.
Hikind said that he adjusted his tactics in order to be most effective. “Some people want me to yell and scream; they want me to burn the town down. I know how to do that, but I would lose the war immediately,” Hikind said in his office in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boro Park.
After Hikind first publicized the problem of child sexual abuse in religious communities on his weekly radio show, it was widely reported that he heard from 1,000 victims of past and current abuse. That figure was attributed to Hikind by The New York Times, the New York Post, the Forward and other Jewish media.
But the real figure is about 100, Hikind told the Forward. He said the often repeated 1,000 number may have come from his speculation about the possible number of cases, given what he has heard from therapists who treat sexual abuse victims.
“I think what we were saying to everybody was, my God, the numbers must be astronomical,” Hikind said. “We never said a thousand. It keeps on getting repeated; anybody who talks to me, I actually tell them what the facts are.”
In the same interview, Hikind retreated from his previous position with regard to one of the Orthodox community’s most prominent alleged abusers — Rabbi Avrohom Reichman, formerly principal of, and currently a teacher at, the United Talmudical Academy, located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Reichman, the UTA and the Satmar Bungalow Colony summer camp are all named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Joel Engelman, 23, who says that he was sexually abused by Reichman when he was 8 years old and that the school covered up the abuse.
Since Engelman went public with his allegations, both his family and Hikind have heard from others who say they were also victimized by Reichman. Last summer, following those revelations, Hikind vowed publicly that Reichman would not return to his teaching job in the fall of 2008.
But the accused rabbi is still teaching, and Hikind has not publicly pressed the issue further. The assemblyman told the Forward that his confrontation with Satmar leaders has been “a rather huge learning experience for me.”
Hikind stated that he has “been extremely clear publicly that I believe Rabbi Reichman has done some terrible things, and he should be out. We tried a lot of things behind the scenes to get [Satmar leaders and school officials] to remove this guy, but at the end of the day, for whatever reason — and I think it has something to do with his family being very prominent and having a lot of money — they were not going to remove this guy willingly. Period. End of story.”
The UTA did not return a phone message seeking a response to the allegations.
Hikind said that he could have raised more of a ruckus — for example, by protesting in front of the school — but he believed that such tactics would ultimately hurt the cause by turning other Orthodox leaders against him, which in turn would discourage other victims from speaking out.
“I made a decision that for me to go to war with Satmar, war meaning going into the streets and fighting them publicly and protesting outside the school… it would just destroy everything I’m trying to do,” Hikind said. “I felt without doubt that I would jeopardize everything else that I’m doing. I’ve had to walk on eggs.”
Pearl Engelman, Joel’s mother, has lashed out at Hikind in the past. But at a recent public forum on child sexual abuse, she seemed more sad than angry with Hikind — though still furious at her son’s alleged molester. “The school is stronger than Dov Hikind,” she said quietly. She said people often ask her why Reichman is still teaching children.
“Honestly, I have no answer, and it needs to be asked of the community and the school that is harboring him,” she said, adding that many UTA parents don’t even know about the abuse allegations, despite widespread publicity. “Our community is so secluded that people actually don’t know the news.”
While he has been trying to work cooperatively with religious leaders, Hikind said he is supplying the district attorney’s office with the names of accused molesters. He steadfastly refuses to disclose the names of victims or to publicly name accused pedophiles, but he said giving information about suspected molesters to the authorities is something different altogether.
“We have always worked with the DA,” Hikind said. “We don’t go out and publicize it, because that would destroy everything that I’m doing. But when we have situations where there’s a danger, we constantly give that information to the proper authorities.”
He would not disclose the number of names he has passed along to the district attorney, saying only that it was “many, many, many.” The Brooklyn district attorney’s office confirmed that Hikind has been sharing information, but the office declined to specify how many names the assemblyman has passed along. Overall, the D.A. now has 19 open cases involving allegations of sexual abuse in Orthodox communities in Brooklyn, said Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.
Advocates for abuse survivors say they understand that Hikind has to tread cautiously, and they appreciate his efforts.
“The fact that 100 victims came forward is significant. Think about how hard it is for a survivor to come forward in the face of the stigma in their communities. These people are really courageous,” said Lonnie Soury, who is a spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group of Jewish sexual abuse survivors.
Elliot Pasik, the attorney handling Engelman’s lawsuit, confirmed that Hikind has been communicating with law enforcement.
“People need to recognize that the sex abuse problem has been brewing in the Orthodox community for 30 years, and an overnight solution is simply not feasible,” said Pasik, president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, a group he founded last year. “I understand there are advocates clamoring for Mr. Hikind to publicly release the names of the alleged molesters, but we shouldn’t pursue vigilantism…. There is a validity to the path Mr. Hikind has pursued.”
In addition to civil lawsuits and criminal investigations, the third front in the fight against sex abuse is unfolding in Albany, where lawmakers are considering two bills that could permanently change the way religious communities deal with sexual abuse.
One would require background checks and fingerprinting for all private school employees — something that is already mandated for public schools. Sponsored by Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and co-sponsored by Hikind, among others, the fingerprinting bill is awaiting a hearing in the Assembly education committee.
The second bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and also co-sponsored by Hikind, would extend the statute of limitations by five years for criminal and civil cases of child sex abuse and would create a one-year window during which people could sue over old cases of sexual abuse. That bill, which would expose churches, religious schools and synagogues to possible litigation from abuses stretching back many years, may get a vote in the Assembly in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, survivors of sexual abuse say they will continue to speak out, and Hikind says he will continue advocating on their behalf — in his own way.
u guys are a bunch of narcicistic bastards! he says something right and u give him no credit! and why is supporting the lopez bill any worse than the markey bill? is the one year window where anyone who ever had a gripe with any yeshiva can sue for something that allegedly happened 35 years ago, THATS WHATS IMPORTANT? What's important is that our schools will now be held responsible for longer for things that happen.
just one guy...
Abuse and crime victims need the chizuk from the community that the Torah demands us to PURSUE JUSTICE. This is not an American innovation, but written by Hashem. Klal Yisroel has become robotized by the DAAS TORAH machine, unable to read and apply Torah with the meforshim written.
Ish es re'ehu ya'azoru u'liachiv yomar CHAZAK!
We must strengthen our friends, family, and community. Those afraid of defending themselves against persecution should be told CHAZAK, be strong. Fighting against evil, and fighting for justice is DEMANDED BY THE TORAH. Not the newly branded Daas Torah formula of interpretation.
By fighting evil, and pursuing justice we will be zocheh to enjoy Moshiach with all those who have left Judaism due to their pain. They will see how REAL JEWS act because they follow the REAL TORAH GIVEN ON SINAI. Daas Torah follows a man written ADULTERATED FOR THEIR OWN POWER kefirah concept.
Then and only then can we proclaim NO JEW WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. At that time we can say WE ARE FOREVER ONE. A shining example for the nations. Declaring for one and all, "WE HAVE MADE MISTAKES, BUT HAVE PERSONALLY ASSURED NO MORE MISTAKES HAPPEN FROM NOW ON. WE HAVE ENCOURAGED OUR COMMUNITIES TO CALL 911, AND PURSUE JUSTICE. WE HAVE INSISTED ON A FULLY ENFORCED UNIFORM STANDARD IN OUR SCHOOLS TO PROTECT OUR MOST PRECIOUS COMMODITY (OUR CHILDREN,NOT OUR CASH)."
As the director of Torah U'Mesorah, you have disallowed co-ed schools from joining the Torah U'Mesorah umbrella. Now raise the standard and insist, ANY SCHOOL NOT FOLLOWING THE UNIFORM STANDARD, AND FAILS TO REPORT ABUSE TO THE POLICE CAN NO LONGER REMAIN UNDER TORAH U'MESORAH.
It is our moral responsibility to expect this from you. It is your moral obligation to either follow this reccomendation, OR RESIGN.
We are watching. We placed our trust in you to lead the organization. We expect you follow the MESORAH of TORAH being written by Hashem, unadulterated by man, and PURSUE JUSTICE. The time for you to lead is NOW.
Sincerely,
Chug Talmidei Yeshiva of Philadelphia
UOJ:
Is this referring to Agudah??????
***************************************
CALL TO ACTION:
You are right Bentzion, there is no official Orthodox stance. Yet, whenever the Orthodox Union goes out to help klal yisroel, another organization blocks their effort by claiming that THEY represent authentic Torah values.
Since THEY allegedly represent Torah, and the greatest sages of Torah GUIDE, INSTRUCT, AND MAKE DECISIONS for them, this organization is being called the representative of Judaism. So although this organization membership of paying ADULT memberes is closer to 600 not 600,000 as they try to misrepresent themselves, they are looked up to as the lamplighters of Orthodoxy.
Since THEY chose to put themselves in the spotlight, all attention is drawn to them. By saying that THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS MORE CHASHUV THAN YOSSI WHO IS OFF THE DERECH SO HE HAS NO NE'EMANUS, that is a major chillul Hashem, and an indictment on this organization.
We must write to the New York Times, and government officials that this organization DOES NOT REPRESENT US.
please call your state representittives and your congreepeople and say that ohel and aguda needs to be investigated for covering up known cases of abuse abuse
please let me get the information on telz please post here their financial misdeeds and the molestation coverups
I knew Hikind was going to backpedal on campaign to bring the molesters to justice. Some chassidic groups have too much political power and will not cave in the way Hikind had anticipated. You know what they say, in numbers, there is strength and unfortunately Hikind has met these numbers and they pushed him back...
lip-shits is a total faker, 2-facer back-stabber.
he thinks this is good for business so he wrote this.
im not saying hes write or wrong, im just making it clear to the public who this ass is.
curses out chasidim all day and when satmar pays him to push arot satmar kj, he is seen cozying up to his tuches.
sumbag pinny cant be trusted with anything
ask the olympia people and they will tell u all about him
keep your daughters away.
nuff said
I commend Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz for finally speaking up about this issue in his paper the "YATED". I would like however, to point out a few misconceptions on his part so that he has a more educated and clearer picture of what he is finally speaking about.
For one thing our children are not korbonos and have not been singled out for "punishment". Sexual abuse and molestation, or any other form of child abuse is not a "punishment" it is a "CRIME" against the victim. And the only reason they were singled out is because they were "easy prey" and children who were uninformed and ill prepared to speak up and say "NO, you can't touch me like that, my Mommy said so!" Or if the child was older to pull away and say "STOP, you are not going to destroy me!" It has nothing to do with gezeiros that Hashem has placed on the children. Children are innocent neshomas and Hashem doesn't do that.
Secondly, no one accused ALL Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshivos or all Gedolei Yisroel of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the truth. No one accused ALL these Rabbinic authorities of protecting the evil predators. Those who fall into these categories know who they are and so do we, maybe not all of us, but those in the "know" and those involved in the parsha such as victims, families, therapists, pediatricians, attorneys and advocates. So lets not pretend to throw a wet blanket over the flames to absolve all those guilty parties of accountability and responsibility. WE must hold them accountable or there will never be any change. If they cannot acknowledge the mistakes that they made, there is nothing that can be done to promote healing and change. If they can't lead appropriately let them step down and allow someone else who has OUR children’s' safety, health and welfare as a priority take over.
In addition, for all the talk about Torah V'daath and other institutions working behind the scenes, discussing these issues, etc. where are ALL these wonderful groups when it comes time to promote legislation that will protect OUR children. Which one of these chashuv Rabbonim, Kehilos, Yeshivos came out in favor of the mandatory fingerprinting and background checks bill currently in congress, or the Markey bill in favor of extending the statute of limitations and open a one year window for victims to come forward and have their day in court?
In addition, anyone of these Rabbonim or Roshei Yeshivas could have picked up the phone and called Dov Hikind and asked "Do I have a problem in my yeshiva that needs to be addressed?" Dov was barred from calling them, but not even one of them called him to find out if their students are safe. Why is that? Wasn't anyone curious, nervous, concerned, upset or even uncomfortable knowing that so very many victims told their stories to Dov? Shouldn't even a handful of Yeshiva menahalim, administrators or Roshei Yeshivas have called Dov to find out if they had a problem and how they should go about handling it? Dov would not have had to say who the abuser was, just “Yes, you have a problem”.
There just is no room for "buts" anymore. If you honestly and truly understand this horrific parsha, then you have to take a stand right here and right now for or against. And by not coming out in favor of these two pieces of legislation you are absolutely coming out opposed to it. Where are the speeches to every Kehilla urging the Olam to call their representatives in support of these bills? Where are the letters from the Roshei Yeshivas to the parent body of their yeshivas asking them to call their representatives in favor and support of these bills?
Where is the request to all the major Jewish Organizations to come out in support of these two bills? Rabbi Lipschutz what truly motivated you to write this article? If you are truly compassionate about protecting children from the monsters within then you can't seesaw in your editorials. You have to choose a side. And if you choose to finally support the victims and survivors of child abuse and molestation and hear their pleas to clean house of all the perpetrators cloaked and disguised in the levush and/or other actions of "tzadikim", then speak up for them without any ifs, ands, or buts to soften the blows to responsible parties.
I have heard many claims about the following Rabbis on this blog.
Rav Scheinberg ruled that non-penetration molestation is not sexual abuse and dismissed victims of Kolko on that basis.
Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky found out about Eisemann and transfered him to Baltimore with that knowledge.
Also that he told people that we must beleive that Kolko did teshuva unless a victim that was molested within the last few months comes forward.
If true, this is devastating. I want to spread this to all of my Haredi friends, but how do I know this is true?
If I said I read this at UOJ, they will just dismiss it as the writings of an apikoress.
Can anyone please provide independent confirmation of these charges as well as others?
Thank you very much.
友達の前では少し強がって彼氏なんかいらないって言ってしまうけど、やっぱ本音では欲しいです、夜は寒いし寂しいし私の本音に気付いてください。メアド乗せておくので優しい方連絡くださいtoward.the-future@docomo.ne.jp
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