One of the biggest challenges with respect to the problem of child molestation in the Torah world is the tremendous emotional capital vested into the thinking of any decent human being when assessing the situation. I find myself falling victim to it too. It is of course very understandable. The outrage we all feel when our community is suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into a world we thought we were impervious to.
Many emotions suddenly well up inside of us: outrage, anger, guilt, remorse, and certainly compassion for the victims. How can this happen in the Torah world? Who is to blame? Why didn’t we notice? Why didn’t we do more? What can we do now? These are all genuine responses and are quite legitimate.
One of the consequences of these emotions is to seek someone to blame. Obviously the person most responsible is the perpetrator himself. But they are sick individuals. Mental health professionals say that they are beyond help. Treatment doesn’t work. The only way to prevent abuse is to make certain they are kept away from children… either by long prison terms or by taking the necessary steps to protect our children. Like those suggested by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz at his website.
But as has been obvious from the start it isn’t only the perpetrator that is to blame. It is the rabbinic establishment. Indeed there is a lot of blame to be had there …both in the modern Orthodox world and in the Charedi world. Cover-ups have occurred in both camps that has enabled long term sexual molestation of young people.
It is clear that those who work for the welfare of the Torah world want to protect its image. They are therefore slow to act. But this approach has caused victims to pile up. And they are now - even many years after the fact - suffering the consequences.
As a result of this reticence and the now apparent consequences, there is a temptation to blame the entire rabbinic establishment. But not all rabbis are ‘created equal’. A lot depends on individual circumstances. I do not think it is fair to condemn all rabbinic leaders equally. There are some who have taken heroic positions. But there are others who deserve our condemnation. Their priorities are reversed.
They look at Kavod HaTorah first. That has caused them to sit on accusations of abuse fearing exposure will make the Torah world look bad. But no matter how badly the Torah world is made to look by publicly exposing perpetrators, the harm caused to the victims and their loved ones far supercedes the damage to ‘image’.
Instead of worrying so much how we will looking the eyes of the world we ought to consider how we look in the eyes of God. I don’t think God likes it when we sit on information about child molesters.
This does not mean that we shout from the rooftops the names of every accused person. That would be criminal! But it does mean that immediate steps are taken to remove the accused from any further contact with children. It means investigating as discretely as possible the charges against him. And the investigation needs to be done by professionals.
Any rabbinic figure that allows those accused to continue contact with children in any way deserves our outrage and our scorn. They do the opposite of protecting the image of the Torah world. They damage it! …comparing our response to that of the Catholic Church. Sweeping it ‘under the carpet’ is NOT Daas Torah. It is the opposite.
As far back as May of 2002, Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Levin spoke at a Torah U’mesorah convention of several hundred principals. He said about this issue: ‘There is no more room under the carpet’.
A Frum professional who has been involved many years with victims has told me that what has been reported in the media of is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more child molestation in the Frum community, than anyone can possibly imagine! Unfortunately some rabbinic leaders refuse to believe that.
So whom do we blame? How much blame do we assign? Whom do we direct out outrage to? These are valid questions that need to be answered if we are to going to even begin to tackle the problem of rabbinic reticence.
Here is a partial answer.
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz had written a hard hitting essay on the issue of child molestation. That led to sweeping accustions by some of the commenters on his website against the rabbinic leadership. Rabbi Horowitz warns against broad accusations like these and objects to sweeping condemnations of all Rabbonim and the widespread notion that Rabbonim have the ability to correct all wrongs in our society. He also notes the changing times in defense of some leaders and in comment number 230 responds with the following:
I think that all fair-minded people would agree that leaders who have erred in the matter of abuse fall into several distinct categories:
a) Those who never personally encountered any victims, but in a global sense did not appreciate the gravity of abuse and incorrectly assumed that there was little or no abuse in our community.
b) Those who disbelieved or underplayed legitimate claims of molestation and/or abuse by victims, due to the fact that they found it inconceivable that a particular alleged perpetrator could commit such crimes.
c) Those who allowed children to remain in contact with individuals about whom multiple allegations had been lodged, but nothing had ever been investigated or proven.
d) Those who knowingly allowed confirmed child molesters near children even after they had clear and incontrovertible evidence that this individual had harmed children in the past.
As Rabbi Horowitz points out it is unfair to apply today's level of awareness to category 'a' and 'b.' However, category 'd' exists in far greater number than anyone cares to admit. These are the rabbis that deserve our scorn and outrage. They are guilty! And they should resign any position of leadership in the Torah world they have.
What can we do to accomplish this? I think we need a mass boycott of the institutions they head or are involved with until they resign. It doesn’t matter how Frum or how knowledgeable they are in Torah. It doesn’t matter how concerned they are about the welfare of Klal Yisroel… or the Mesiras Nefesh they have had in various worthwhile causes.
Nor does it matter how prominent they are. When image is put before the health and welfare of any human being, then - to paraphrase Rav Aharon Kotler - his “Shteleh iz Gornisht Vert”. His position is worthless! Instead of leading Klal Yisroel, he is enabling sex offenders. All his Divrei Torah and Divrei Musser pale in comparison to what he is potentially enabling.
Modern Orthodoxy learned this lesson the hard way. Ask any of the past leadership of NCSY who were asked to resign after the Joel commission report. Those rabbinic leaders wanted to protect Kavod HaTorah too. Look where that led. It enabled years of abuse and it made the Torah world look terrible. Their mission t protect their image was not accomplished. Human beings suffered. And the rabbinic leaders at NCSY paid a very heavy personal price. The reputations of good people are now tarnished forever!
The Charedi leadership refuses to learn from that event. They too will have to learn the hard way. And we can help.
Roshei Yeshiva that now harbor or who have harbored sex offenders ought to be boycotted by any parent - past, present, or potential until they reisgn. And any rabbinic leader of any institution who justifies sweeping things under the carpet ought to be forced to resign as well.
Refusing to donate money to their institutions ought to start right now. The cost of waiting is too high. Who knows how many young people are being sexually abused at this very moment in time because of their reticence?! Any Rabbinic leader who sits on information and refuses or is slow to act on it is a Mesayah L’Averiah. And yes, these leaders do exist (category 'd' of Rabbi Horowitz’s list). They are enablers of potential sex abuse. And I do not envy their Olam Habah!
