Some one forwarded this to me, I guess the number is closer to 20%. Whew! That makes me feel much better. 33%??? - What was I thinking?! It isn't one out of three after all. It's only one out of five. We can all go back to sleep now.
Update: Rabbi Eliyahu Fink has weighed in on this video. Here are his bullet points. I think they are all valid:
- The segment is not sensationalist or riddled with half-truths. It is honest and straightforward.
- Denial is a powerful drug.
- I honestly believe that Hynes is not “protecting abusers” for the sake of votes. I think he can’t prosecute without witnesses and he needs cooperation from victims to prosecute. (I wrote about that here: In Defense of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes)
- One in five being abused is a number that is not scientific but is very possible. One in five thousand would be enough to push us to deal with the issue. One in five is a number that demands immediate and powerful action.
- The intimidation of victims and their families should warrant its own segment. Protecting abusers and sacrificing victims is not just heartless and stupid, it compounds the effects of abuse by giving victims the right to think that they are sacrifices and I believe can be linked to victim suicide.
- It’s obviously not just in the chasidic or even orthodox Jewish communities that abuse occurs, but the approach to dealing with abuse is the main difference between the chasidic or even orthodox Jewish community and the rest of the world. We are not equipped to deal with it internally even if we admit that we have a problem. How could we be?
