Yeshiva University Needs to Do the Right Thing

Yeshiva University Beis HaMedrash

After thinking long and hard about the sex abuse scandal at Yeshiva University’s high school, I have come to the conclusion that more needs to be done.

A lot of mistakes were made that resulted in many young students being subjected to sex abuse. This is certainly not a happy episode for YU. A lot of people share culpability for the overlooking or ignoring what happened during the employ by YU of Macy Gordon and George Finkelstein.

Some of the people who need to answer for their mistakes are people I respect. Some are icons. I am not going to go into specifics of why I so admire and respect those people. Those who read this blog regularly will for instance know how much Dr. Lamm has influenced my own Hashkafos. I still honor him for that. I don’t think I would be who I am today without reading some of his works.

To the best of my understanding, his level of culpability is as follows. As president of Yeshiva University he was informed of abuse by the above two individuals. Instead of reporting them to the police and firing them immediately, he let them go quietly… and did not feel the need to inform other communities about them.

If I recall correctly - his explanation for this was that he did not want to hurt them professionally since he had no hard evidence for their abusive behavior. He also felt that it was the obligation of those who in the future would employ them to check them out… and not his obligation to warn them. That was pretty much the thinking in those days – wrong though it was.

We all know by now that predators when ‘kicked out’ from one community will set up shop in another. It is also true that the victims of Macy and Finkelstein were not properly dealt with. If I am not mistaken they were basically told to just keep quiet, get over it, and get on with their lives.

We also now know that it doesn’t work like that. There are lifelong residual effects suffered by sex abuse victims that stay with them for the rest of their lives.  Some handle it better than others. But it is no secret that in many cases abuse victims suffer lifelong depression if untreated - leading to suicides in some cases. There is ample evidence of that.

I do not think Dr. Lamm is a bad person. Quite the contrary. But I do think he made a mistake and should say so publicly.

One can say with a certain amount of legitimacy that as President of a University that was in such financial trouble when he took over that his time was consumed with turning things around. He set about to literally save the school. Which he did. With such a heavy responsibility he could have well just seen the ‘goings on’ at the affiliated high school that he was not directly involved with was an intrusion into his primary function as the head of the University - charged with literally saving it from closing down.

This of course is no excuse. But it is a fact and should in my view be taken into consideration. It is equally true that his busy schedule did not diminish his responsibilty to the individual student. It did not diminish the pain suffered by students who were victims. It should not have been a back burner issue.

It is now my view that YU needs to do the right thing and come clean. They need to admit that mistakes were made by leaders  both past and present. What happened ought to be fully investigated and all results made public. To the extent that mistakes were made, they ought to be fully recognized and apologized for.

I also agree with Stacy Klein  who said in a Forward article that YU should indeed set up a fund for victims in order to help pay for any therapy needed by the victims of Gordon and Finkelstein.

However, I do not agree that at age 85, Dr. Lamm should be fired from his position-  as she suggests. His intent was not malicious. Just mistaken. And his contributions to Judaism are immense. I think a sincere apology admitting his mistakes  - along with that therapy fund - would go a long way towards helping to heal the victims. I do not see anyone gaining from his being fired.

After discovery of all the facts YU needs to not only make them public and officially apologize  - it needs to take concrete steps to make sure it never happens again. And to try and make things right for the victims via funding their path to healing.  

I hope that victims of Gordon and Finkelstein will agree with this approach.

Once YU does all this it can get on with its holy mission of teaching Torah U’Mada to future generations of Jews. YU has a great legacy. But it is not perfect. Once it does the right thing here – their reputation can be restored and their legacy will continue well into the future.

Unlike the typical Yeshiva - there is only one Yeshiva University. Mistakes were made. But it ought not lead to its downfall. Mistakes can be corrected. That’s what needs to happen here.