Case of the Unnamed Rabbi:
Principal who impregnated a girl with learning disabilities
(Borough Park) Brooklyn, New York
Call For Action:
The following case has been haunting members
of The Awareness Center since it was mentioned in a article put out by JTA
back in 2001.
The Awareness Center is looking for all the information
we can find regarding the Rabbi-Prinicipal who inpregnated a girl with learning
disabilities at school he was principal at.
If you have more information regarding this case please
send it to The Awareness Center
In her RCA speech, Dr. Susan Shulman (a pediatrician
who served on the O.U.'s commission investigating the Lanner scandal and
lectures frequently about sexual abuse) told of an anonymous rabbi who
impregnated a student while he was principal of a school for Jewish girls
with learning disabilities. When he was fired, he moved to another community
where he is "still a prominent rabbi."
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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.
- Grappling with Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Community - No Longer Taboo (2001)
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For years, the Orthodox community has hidden it. Now,
a confluence of factors is making their sexual abuse problem come out of
the closet.
By Julie Wiener
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 2001
The Borough Park section of Brooklyn is one of America's
most visibly Jewish neighborhoods.
On several residential blocks of one- and two-family
brick homes, almost every front door has a mezuzah. Modestly dressed women
push strollers, while girls in dresses and boys in tzitzit and yarmulkes
play on the sidewalks. More on this story
Sixteenth Avenue, one of the main drags, is lined with
religious study centers and yeshivot, a Jewish high school for girls, small
synagogues and Judaica stores.
And in the middle of it all is an agency that runs
a treatment program for Orthodox Jewish pedophiles.
Orthodox pedophiles?
For years, most people in the Orthodox world assumed
their religious way of life and tight-knit communities insulated them from
problems rocking the larger world, like sexual abuse.
There is still a great deal of resistance to discussing
the issue, and a lingering feeling among many victims and advocates that
Orthodox institutions are more concerned with protecting the reputations
of men accused of sexual abuse than with believing or helping victims.
But fueled by a combination of factors — recent
scandals, a growing cadre of Orthodox psychotherapists in whom Orthodox Jews
feel comfortable confiding, and American society's growing openness about
sensitive social problems — that sense of insularity is eroding both
among the fervently and centrist Orthodox communities.
Just as it has begun to acknowledge that there are
Orthodox child abusers and Orthodox drug addicts, the community is gradually
coming to grips with the fact that it, too, has sexual abusers in its
midst.
Through Jewish agencies like Borough Park's Ohel Children's
Home and Family Services — whose sex offender program is believed to
be the only Orthodox program of its kind — it is starting to confront
the problem.
Among the indicators of change:
· In the wake of public allegations last year
that a high-ranking professional in the Orthodox Union's National Conference
of Synagogue Youth had sexually abused more than 20 teen-age girls, sexual
abuse has become a household world among centrist Orthodox Jews. The O.U.,
which had been accused of protecting Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the alleged abuser,
underwent an investigation by an independent commission, made some key staff
changes and has vowed to implement policies to prevent future abuse.
· Four years ago, at the request of the Brooklyn
District Attorney, Ohel — which already treated Jewish survivors of
sexual abuse — created the first- ever treatment program specifically
for Orthodox sex offenders. More than 30 people, half referred through the
criminal justice system and half through rabbis and Jewish communal leaders,
have received evaluation or treatment through the program; more are on a
waiting list.
· At its convention this year, the Rabbinical
Council of America, which represents 1,100 mainstream Orthodox rabbis, held
an open and detailed discussion about sexual abuse led by Dr. Susan Shulman,
a pediatrician who served on the O.U.'s commission investigating the Lanner
scandal and lectures frequently about sexual abuse.
· According to the RCA's immediate past president,
Rabbi Kenneth Hain, the rabbinic group is in the "embryonic stages" of creating
a system for dealing with members accused of sexual misconduct.
· In the aftermath of two publicized cases of
pedophilia — one concerning a rabbi teaching at a day school and another
concerning a kosher butcher — the Chicago Rabbinical Council recently
created a special Beit Din, or rabbinical court, to address sexual abuse.
The court, which has four rabbis from different sectors of the local Orthodox
community, consults with a team of psychologists, social workers and lawyers.
It is believed to be the only permanent North American Beit Din focusing
on this issue.
· According to David Mandel, chief executive officer
of Ohel, Orthodox schools and other institutions increasingly are hosting
workshops educating parents and teachers on how to prevent abuse against
children and identify the symptoms indicating that a child may have been
abused. In the past year, Ohel participated in more than 12 seminars or
conference sessions on the topic, about twice as many as in previous
years.
Sexual abuse is hardly unique to the Orthodox community,
and many who work in the field say there appear to be far fewer incidents
in the Jewish community than in American society as a whole.
Problems like victims' reluctance to come forward,
difficulty proving cases, and a tendency of people not to want to believe
accusations are vexing issues in any community. Even when caught, sexual
abusers are difficult to treat, and many experts say they must be watched
vigilantly because they never fully recover.
But there are certain aspects of Orthodox life that
make such problems uniquely challenging.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the wall of silence
and denial.
"We're a community that would like to believe that
our religious lives prevent these problems," said Rabbi Yosef Blau, a spiritual
guidance counselor at Yeshiva University's rabbinic seminary and someone
known as an advocate for victims of sexual abuse.
Samuel Heilman, a professor of Jewish studies and sociology
at the City University of New York, said the presence of sexual abuse "calls
into question some of the deeply held values of Orthodoxy — mainly that
if you maintain a strict attachment to Jewish tradition and values, somehow
that would insulate you from all that is evil in society."
In addition, there is a historic Jewish tendency,
particularly acute in the Orthodox world, to keep quiet about sensitive issues
for fear of publicly scandalizing the community.
Many Orthodox Jews also fear that embarrassing information
could jeopardize future wedding matches for individuals and their
families.
Another obstacle is that the many demands of an Orthodox
lifestyle — and the fact that Orthodox Jews must live within walking
distance of synagogue — make Orthodox communities tight-knit. That can
make it hard for a victim to come forward, particularly if the abuser is
prominent or well-liked.
When the perpetrator is a rabbi or other respected
member of the community, victims have an even greater difficulty, given Orthodox
Judaism's reverence for rabbinical authority figures.
"... That's no good because if he goes to another community
he will do the same thing ..." -- Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz
"If a kid goes to a parent and says, My rebbe did something
to me, the parents tend to believe the rabbi, not the child," Blau said.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is that most Orthodox
institutions lack a formal system for preventing or reporting abuse.
Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Orthodox
Jews generally are more reluctant than liberal Jews to go to the police for
crimes committed within the community.
Instead, Orthodox Jews tend to rely on rabbinical courts.
But most such courts are ill-equipped to handle sexual abuse cases, and many
— according to victims' advocates and Shulman — refuse to hear
such cases.
Chicago's Beit Din is one of the few actively dealing
with sexual abuse. So far, it has found three people guilty of abuse, alerting
community leaders so they can keep an eye on the offenders and not hire them
for jobs where they will be alone with children.
Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz, chief presiding rabbi of the
Chicago Rabbinical Council and the Beit Din of America, a national rabbinical
court under RCA auspices, urges victims to go to the police as well.
"Some might say, send" the abuser "to another community,"
Schwartz said. "That's no good because if he goes to another community he
will do the same thing."
However, some communities do just that.
In her RCA speech, Shulman told of an anonymous
rabbi who impregnated a student while he was principal of a school for Jewish
girls with learning disabilities. When he was fired, he moved to another
community where he is "still a prominent rabbi."
Despite the remaining challenges, some in the Orthodox
world find solace in the fact that the topic is now on the table and that
some treatment programs are out there.
Because of the Lanner case, "people who in the past
would've said, `I'm sure he couldn't have done that and Just let it go are
now saying, I heard about this and we can't let this happen again,' " Blau
said.
According to Mandell and others, the changes are deeper
than a mere reaction to Lanner.
In fact, sex abuse is being discussed and addressed
not just in centrist Orthodox circles but in fervently Orthodox communities
where many people — who do not read secular or even mainstream Jewish
newspapers — have not heard of the Lanner scandal.
David Pelcovitz, director of psychology at North Shore
University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and a clinical professor of psychology
at the New York University School of Medicine, said he increasingly hears
rabbis frame the issue by talking about the concept of ha'alamah, the biblical
injunction not to look the other way.
Mandel, Pelcovitz and Shulman all say that invitations
are increasing to speak on the topic at conferences and to lead training
workshops.
Pelcovitz, who teaches a pastoral psychology course
at Yeshiva University's rabbinical school on dealing with sexual abuse
complaints, said Orthodox rabbinical groups such as the RCA and the National
Council of Young Israel also are starting to offer continuing education on
sexual abuse.
Mandel noted that after almost every speech he and
his staff give on sexual abuse, at least one adult privately comes forward
to say he or she, too, was victimized but never before felt comfortable telling
anyone.
"People are discussing a topic that truly wasn't
discussed," he said.
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