The Awareness Center closed. We operated from April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014. This site is being provided for educational & historical purposes. We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.
Showing posts with label David Zwiebel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Zwiebel. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA: Stop Manipulating Our People -- Allow Them to Them To Think For Themselves!
Monday, June 04, 2012
Sunday, June 03, 2012
CALL TO ACTION: Inform Senator Joe Lieberman about rabbi Dovid Zwiebel
Click on the image below to send a message to Senator Lieberman.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Rabbi David Zwiebel how about funding a legitimate rape crisis center!
 |
| Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel |
In the following video of Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel boasting to his
constituents about Agudath Israel of America and its many
accomplishments, including the $18 million in grant money for yeshivas.
Wouldn't
it be great if Zwiebel would be able to put that $18 million into
helping Jewish survivors who were abused by his friends and the others
who feel that Agudath Israel of America is an important organization?
I'm not talking about a fly by night organization that goes to various
rabbonim for permission to make hotline reports, or will falsely fear
making a report will deter people from going to them. I'm talking about
a legitimate one that has ties with The New York City Alliance Against
Sexual Assault and is a member of the National Sexual Violence Resource
Center.
The Awareness Center is also calling for Zwiebel
and everyone else connected to the aggudah to do teshuvah on this, by
financially compensation every survivor of a sexually predator connected
to his organization. If you don't dream it, and put it out there --
it will never happen.
Those who are orthodox
deserve the same civil rights as the rest of us who live in the United
States. How dare these folks take these rights away.
Youtube Video: Zwiebel's ramblings about Agudath
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Orthodox Jews Relying More on Legal Prosecution of Sex Abuse
For decades, prosecutors in Brooklyn routinely pursued child molesters from every major ethnic and religious segment of the borough’s diverse population. Except one.
Of some 700 child sexual abuse cases brought in an average year, few involved members of the ultra-observant Orthodox Jewish community — about 180,000 followers of Hasidic and other sects who make up the largest such cluster outside Israel.
Some years, there were one or two arrests, or none.
But in the past year, there have been 26. District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has brought charges against a variety of men — yeshiva teachers, rabbis, camp counselors, merchants and relatives of children. Eight have been convicted; 18 await trial.
If the sudden spike in prosecutions is startling, even more surprising is the apparent reason: ultra-Orthodox Jews, long forbidden to inform on one another without permission from the rabbis who lead them, are going to the police and prosecutors on their own.
These Jews, who refer to themselves as the haredim, meaning those who fear God, reject modern secular culture and for centuries have kept strict control over what they consider internal affairs.
Allegations and disputes involving children, marriage and business have been decided by rabbinical courts called beth dins, which conduct their own inquiries and do not report their findings to the secular authorities, even when they judge someone guilty of a crime. Taboos codified centuries ago during periods of anti-Semitism discourage observant Jews from informing on other Jews; violations can result in ostracism.
Now, a growing number of haredi Jews in Brooklyn say they do not think they can get justice from the rabbinical courts, which in several high-profile cases have exonerated people who were later criminally convicted of child abuse. And although some advocates for victims contend that the district attorney has been too accommodating of the rabbinical hierarchy — a charge Mr. Hynes denies — families are increasingly turning to his office for help.
Prosecutors say that since last year there have been 40 minors prepared to testify in court about abuse. And Mr. Hynes’s office has been asked for advice by prosecutors with jurisdictions that include other large haredi enclaves in the Northeast .
”What we have witnessed in the past year is completely unprecedented,” said Rhonnie Jaus, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney’s sex crimes bureau. “This would be inconceivable just a few years ago.”
Children in haredi families are no more or less likely to suffer sexual abuse than others, according to several recent studies. But Ben Hirsch, founder of Survivors for Justice, a New York group whose members include ultra-Orthodox Jews molested as children in communities nationwide, said the clandestine handling of molestation cases had kept leaders from dealing with the problem and made it easier for predators to operate.
Mr. Hirsch credits the Jewish press, therapists and rabbis in the Orthodox population itself, and organizations like his, with bringing the issue to light. Jewish blogs like FailedMessiah.com and theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com, he said, have also been “a major catalyst,” giving abuse victims their first opportunity to vent and connect without fear of being identified.
“People are rising up,” he said.
The father of a Brooklyn 10-year-old said in an interview that the mishandling, as he viewed it, of sex abuse cases by rabbinical courts had persuaded him to contact the police immediately when his son told him last year that a neighbor had abused him.
“I’m not one who believes rabbis are capable to handle this,” he said.
The rabbis themselves voice a wide spectrum of reactions. Many say change is needed. Many more defend their internal courts. But almost all concur with what one Orthodox rabbi, Yosef Blau of Yeshiva University, recently called a dawning revelation about child molestation, which was once dismissed by the hierarchy as inconceivable among a people who embrace an all-consuming religious devotion:
“Now,” he said, “it is seen as possible.”
In April, after bringing most of the recent criminal cases, Mr. Hynes began an initiative called Project Kol Tzedek, or Voice of Justice, which has enlisted Orthodox social workers to encourage more victims to step forward, and has dispatched trained staff members to schools and community centers to talk about sexual abuse.
Hailed by many as an innovative approach, the program has been criticized by some victims’ advocates for its links to an ultra-Orthodox social service agency, Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, to which beth dins have referred men accused of sexual abuse in past years. Critics say that the treatment provided by Ohel has been inadequate and poorly supervised, a charge that the agency has vigorously denied.
Mr. Hynes walks a fine line. He has cultivated ties with Orthodox leaders since he was first elected in 1989. In an interview, he said he did so partly because they represent a major constituency, and partly to address jurisdictional tensions between his authority and theirs. In an editorial last year, The Jewish Week said those relationships had hampered abuse prosecutions, describing his approach until recently as “ranging from passive to weak-willed.”
Yet no prosecutor in the country has as many sexual abuse investigations and pending cases against haredi suspects. “We were able to break through because we have worked to establish credibility in the community,” Mr. Hynes said.
Some ultra-Orthodox leaders said they had no quarrel with Mr. Hynes’s project. Yet one Brooklyn rabbi mentioned frequently on blogs cites ancient doctrine that justifies killing someone who informs on a fellow Jew.
David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, a group representing many Orthodox factions in Brooklyn and nationwide, offered the moderate view. “A broad consensus has emerged in the last few years,” he said, “that many of these issues are beyond the ability of the community to handle internally.”
But he added that prosecutors should recognize “religious sensitivities in the community” by seeking alternatives to prison, to avoid depriving a family of its breadwinner, or by finding appropriate Orthodox homes for children removed from abusive families.
“The district attorney should be careful not to be seen as making a power grab from rabbinic authority,” Mr. Zwiebel said.
Rabbi Meir Fund, who leads a synagogue known as the Flatbush Minyan, said that child molesters should be prosecuted, but that victims should consult with a rabbi before going to the police. Connections among the Orthodox are too entangled to discount the damaging ripple effects of accusations on the accused person’s family, Rabbi Fund said.
Advocates for victims say similar views have informed some of the Brooklyn rabbinical leadership’s worst judgments, allowing prominent rabbis who were repeatedly accused of abuse to keep their jobs and reputations.
In 2000, Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a charismatic youth leader and yeshiva principal who was the focus of students’ abuse claims for more than 20 years — and was exonerated by a beth din — became the subject of an expose in The Jewish Week, which found more than 60 accusers. The story led to a criminal investigation and a seven-year prison term for Mr. Lanner.
Another rabbi, Yehuda Kolko, a grade school teacher at a Flatbush yeshiva, was accused of sexually abusive behavior by parents and former students numerous times over 30 years. The complaints were dismissed by rabbinical authorities, however, until New York magazine wrote about them in 2006.
Shortly afterward, the district attorney’s office filed sex abuse charges against Mr. Kolko. But Mr. Hynes’s decision last year to recommend probation in exchange for Mr. Kolko’s guilty plea to lesser charges of child endangerment incensed many Orthodox Jews. Partly because of that disappointment, some Orthodox leaders began taking steps they admit they would not have earlier.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents a predominantly Orthodox section of Brooklyn, began devoting his Saturday night radio shows on WMCA (570) to what he called “the epidemic” of unreported sex abuse. For six months, starting in July 2008, he invited victims to call him. Hundreds did, he said, adding that 10 of the criminal cases originated with those calls.
That same summer, Asher Lipner, an Orthodox therapist and vice president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, persuaded a Brooklyn yeshiva to open its doors for what he said was the first forum of its kind for Orthodox Jews in the borough — where not just rabbis, but also victims, therapists and laymen examined the problem of sex abuse.
“The good news is that 100 people showed up,” Mr. Lipner said. “The bad news is that we had to keep the meeting secret. We could not advertise it, and we had to agree that no one would discuss the fact that the meeting ever took place.”
As sensibilities evolve, one father seems to have found a middle ground between traditional and secular systems of justice.
When his 6-year-old son told him one day that Rabbi Kolko had sexually abused him, the father said he resolved to go to the police because he knew that the Brooklyn hierarchy had protected the rabbi in the past.
But first he made a detour. “I booked a flight to Jerusalem,” he said. “I made an appointment to speak with a very prominent rabbi” who had written sympathetically about abuse victims.
“He told me it would be O.K. to report this teacher to the police,” the father said. “He told me that if I reported him I would not be committing a sin.”
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Rabbinic Molesters Issue Moving Agudah
Rabbinic Molesters Issue Moving Agudah
Spurred by ‘anguish,’ ultra-Orthodox umbrella group now open to gov’t fingerprinting, other oversight of yeshiva rabbis.
New York Jewish Week - September 24, 2008
By Larry Cohler-Esses, Editor At Large
The recent rash of cases in which rabbis have allegedly molested young children going back decades has moved one group that usually bristles at government involvement in Orthodox schools to envision shifting its stance.
“Our general sense is that we’re much better off when government leaves usalone,” said David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America for government and public affairs. “But because of the sensitivity of this particular issue, I could see the possibility of our rabbis affirmatively encouraging schools to buy into the system, and even maybe affirmatively encouraging government to impose it on us.”
Zwiebel was speaking specifically about a new law that will, for the first time, allow non-public schools to voluntarily take part in a program to fingerprint school employees for use in criminal background checks. But for Agudah, an umbrella organization of ultra-traditional Orthodox groups that
seek a degree of insulation from the secular world, it was a striking statement.
To be sure, Agudah contemplates no welcome mat for a mandatory government fingerprint program just yet. That would be “quite premature,” said Zwiebel. Agudah, he said, wants first to see how the state implements the voluntary law.
But in an interview with The Jewish Week, Zwiebel, whose organization many in Albany check with first on legislation involving the Orthodox community, appeared to offer a wary road map to supporting greater oversight by the government on issues relating to sexual molestation of children.
The pressure for increased government involvement has been building for years. It began with the shocking emergence earlier this decade of Catholic priests who, it turned out, had molested children under their care for decades, and had often been protected by their Church superiors.
More recently, credible allegations have emerged here in New York against a small number of yeshiva rabbis said to have also sexually abused their students over several decades. The alleged victims — often now adults — have also charged that the yeshivas and rabbinic supervisors were informed
about their teachers’ conduct but did nothing, or even protected them.
Now, State Assembly Member Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who has become deeply involved in this issue, speaks of hearing “hundreds” of reports of rabbinic sexual abuse — reports that appear to him to be credible. This week, speaking at a conference on this controversy, Hikind for the first time numbered these reports in the “thousands.”
Slowly, and somewhat erratically, the state legislature has begun to take up the question of legal reforms to address this situation. The fingerprinting law passed last year, will permit non-public schools to voluntarily take part in a program that is already mandatory for all public schools.
But some lawmakers hope to go further next year, with legislation to make non-public school participation mandatory. They also want to pass a bill that would make clergy and non-public school officials “mandated reporters” — individuals required by law to report to the authorities any information or evidence they receive that a child has been abused or molested in a school setting. Public school officials are already required to do so, thanks to an education law passed in 2000 that excluded the private school sector.
Another bill, now stalled by differences between the Assembly and Senate, would extend the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution ofmolesters and for civil suits to be filed against them. Presently, prosecutors cannot go after a child molester once the child in question reaches age 23. And a child victim of sexual molestation must sue his molester — or a school that fails in its duty to protect him — for civil damages by between one and six years after he turns 18, depending on the
nature of the allegation. But experts say child victims can take many years, or even decades, after they reach adulthood to process what was done to them and act on it.
Agudath Israel does not oppose any of these measures in principle, Zwiebel said. But God is in the details. And one red flag for the group is disparate treatment.
“It’s never been our position that non-public schools should be treated differently than public schools,” when it comes to protecting children, he said. “But our position is that they should not be singled out.”
This led Agudath Israel to vigorously oppose a 2003 proposal that would have required members of the clergy and certain categories of religious educators and administrators to go to the authorities with any information they had received about child abuse by other clergy over the last 20 years.
Inspired by the continuing revelations coming from the Catholic Church, the bill singled out the duty of these religious workers to report on their colleagues — but not on sexual abuse from other sources.
In a memo then to leaders of the State Assembly and Senate, Zwiebel denounced the legislation as “patently unconstitutional” for its “apparent assumption that religious functionaries, more than any other element of society, are inherently suspect — and should therefore be subject to special legal scrutiny and reporting requirements — regarding allegations of child abuse.”
Since then, critics have frequently denounced Agudath Israel’s stand as
obstructionist and cited its opposition to this bill as evidence of an intent to shield rabbinic abusers. Condemnations on the Internet against the group have been especially angry and intense.
But Zwiebel said that if the legislature were to introduce a bill that simply included non-public school officials in the duty to report evidence of abuse of students in a school setting, as public school officialsalready must do, “At a minimum, I am pretty certain we’d advise our friends in the
legislature we don’t oppose this.”
As for efforts to expand the statute of limitations, whether criminally or civilly, “I don’t imagine we’ll oppose any of that” either, Zwiebel said.
“Whether we would affirmatively push it, I can’t answer.”
Indeed, legislation on this appears to be stuck between the State Senate and the Assembly. And according to a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), it is opposition from the Catholic Church and the insurance industry that is playing a role.
The Assembly’s bill would significantly extend both the criminal and civilstatute of limitations for child sex abuse going into the future. But the Democratic-dominated Assembly is determined to also give those now beyond the civil statute of limitations a key back into the courts. Its bill would
establish a one-year “window” for adults with allegations of childhoodabuse to file suit, regardless of when the abuse took place.
Skelos’ spokesperson voiced concern about this provision, citing the potential difficulties of obtaining evidence in very old cases. The Senate, he noted, has passed three different bills to eliminate or extend the criminal statute of limitation. But it has refused to pass the Assembly’s
bill. The Assembly, in turn, has held fast against the Senate’s bill.
Meanwhile, the regulations have yet to be published for implementing the law passed last year that would allow non-public schools to opt in on fingerprinting and criminal background checks of its staff. Zwiebel made clear that Agudah’s willingness to accept a bill to make this mandatory for non-public schools will depend on how the voluntary program goes.
One regulation under consideration, he related, would institute a “roach motel” principle: Once a school chooses to opt in, it will not be allowed to opt out.
“I’m troubled by that,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like wise public policy.”
Another proposed rule would mandate that a school opting into the system must require every employee to be fingerprinted, without exception.
“I don’t understand that part of it,” he said. “It would allow us no discretion to [exempt], say, certain veterans about whom there have never been any questions from a criminal background check.”
Still, he said, “I’m not necessarily implying those two rules would push us away. I’d like to know exactly what the details are.”
In many cases, Zwiebel said, Agudah’s views have been misrepresented. He pointed, among other things, to an error in a recent Jewish Week story — since acknowledged — that stated the group opposed a mandatory fingerprinting law and another to make yeshiva officials mandated reporters.
But referring to disturbing exposes that have appeared in this paper and elsewhere, he said, “Some of the anguish and pain that has come in the last few years, though uncomfortable, promotes consciousness of a problem that’s been in the shadows. So, though our views have been misrepresented, I can’t say [critics] are bad people. They obviously care a lot about this issue.” n
Hella Winston contributed to this story.
Spurred by ‘anguish,’ ultra-Orthodox umbrella group now open to gov’t fingerprinting, other oversight of yeshiva rabbis.
New York Jewish Week - September 24, 2008
By Larry Cohler-Esses, Editor At Large
The recent rash of cases in which rabbis have allegedly molested young children going back decades has moved one group that usually bristles at government involvement in Orthodox schools to envision shifting its stance.
“Our general sense is that we’re much better off when government leaves usalone,” said David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America for government and public affairs. “But because of the sensitivity of this particular issue, I could see the possibility of our rabbis affirmatively encouraging schools to buy into the system, and even maybe affirmatively encouraging government to impose it on us.”
Zwiebel was speaking specifically about a new law that will, for the first time, allow non-public schools to voluntarily take part in a program to fingerprint school employees for use in criminal background checks. But for Agudah, an umbrella organization of ultra-traditional Orthodox groups that
seek a degree of insulation from the secular world, it was a striking statement.
To be sure, Agudah contemplates no welcome mat for a mandatory government fingerprint program just yet. That would be “quite premature,” said Zwiebel. Agudah, he said, wants first to see how the state implements the voluntary law.
But in an interview with The Jewish Week, Zwiebel, whose organization many in Albany check with first on legislation involving the Orthodox community, appeared to offer a wary road map to supporting greater oversight by the government on issues relating to sexual molestation of children.
The pressure for increased government involvement has been building for years. It began with the shocking emergence earlier this decade of Catholic priests who, it turned out, had molested children under their care for decades, and had often been protected by their Church superiors.
More recently, credible allegations have emerged here in New York against a small number of yeshiva rabbis said to have also sexually abused their students over several decades. The alleged victims — often now adults — have also charged that the yeshivas and rabbinic supervisors were informed
about their teachers’ conduct but did nothing, or even protected them.
Now, State Assembly Member Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who has become deeply involved in this issue, speaks of hearing “hundreds” of reports of rabbinic sexual abuse — reports that appear to him to be credible. This week, speaking at a conference on this controversy, Hikind for the first time numbered these reports in the “thousands.”
Slowly, and somewhat erratically, the state legislature has begun to take up the question of legal reforms to address this situation. The fingerprinting law passed last year, will permit non-public schools to voluntarily take part in a program that is already mandatory for all public schools.
But some lawmakers hope to go further next year, with legislation to make non-public school participation mandatory. They also want to pass a bill that would make clergy and non-public school officials “mandated reporters” — individuals required by law to report to the authorities any information or evidence they receive that a child has been abused or molested in a school setting. Public school officials are already required to do so, thanks to an education law passed in 2000 that excluded the private school sector.
Another bill, now stalled by differences between the Assembly and Senate, would extend the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution ofmolesters and for civil suits to be filed against them. Presently, prosecutors cannot go after a child molester once the child in question reaches age 23. And a child victim of sexual molestation must sue his molester — or a school that fails in its duty to protect him — for civil damages by between one and six years after he turns 18, depending on the
nature of the allegation. But experts say child victims can take many years, or even decades, after they reach adulthood to process what was done to them and act on it.
Agudath Israel does not oppose any of these measures in principle, Zwiebel said. But God is in the details. And one red flag for the group is disparate treatment.
“It’s never been our position that non-public schools should be treated differently than public schools,” when it comes to protecting children, he said. “But our position is that they should not be singled out.”
This led Agudath Israel to vigorously oppose a 2003 proposal that would have required members of the clergy and certain categories of religious educators and administrators to go to the authorities with any information they had received about child abuse by other clergy over the last 20 years.
Inspired by the continuing revelations coming from the Catholic Church, the bill singled out the duty of these religious workers to report on their colleagues — but not on sexual abuse from other sources.
In a memo then to leaders of the State Assembly and Senate, Zwiebel denounced the legislation as “patently unconstitutional” for its “apparent assumption that religious functionaries, more than any other element of society, are inherently suspect — and should therefore be subject to special legal scrutiny and reporting requirements — regarding allegations of child abuse.”
Since then, critics have frequently denounced Agudath Israel’s stand as
obstructionist and cited its opposition to this bill as evidence of an intent to shield rabbinic abusers. Condemnations on the Internet against the group have been especially angry and intense.
But Zwiebel said that if the legislature were to introduce a bill that simply included non-public school officials in the duty to report evidence of abuse of students in a school setting, as public school officialsalready must do, “At a minimum, I am pretty certain we’d advise our friends in the
legislature we don’t oppose this.”
As for efforts to expand the statute of limitations, whether criminally or civilly, “I don’t imagine we’ll oppose any of that” either, Zwiebel said.
“Whether we would affirmatively push it, I can’t answer.”
Indeed, legislation on this appears to be stuck between the State Senate and the Assembly. And according to a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), it is opposition from the Catholic Church and the insurance industry that is playing a role.
The Assembly’s bill would significantly extend both the criminal and civilstatute of limitations for child sex abuse going into the future. But the Democratic-dominated Assembly is determined to also give those now beyond the civil statute of limitations a key back into the courts. Its bill would
establish a one-year “window” for adults with allegations of childhoodabuse to file suit, regardless of when the abuse took place.
Skelos’ spokesperson voiced concern about this provision, citing the potential difficulties of obtaining evidence in very old cases. The Senate, he noted, has passed three different bills to eliminate or extend the criminal statute of limitation. But it has refused to pass the Assembly’s
bill. The Assembly, in turn, has held fast against the Senate’s bill.
Meanwhile, the regulations have yet to be published for implementing the law passed last year that would allow non-public schools to opt in on fingerprinting and criminal background checks of its staff. Zwiebel made clear that Agudah’s willingness to accept a bill to make this mandatory for non-public schools will depend on how the voluntary program goes.
One regulation under consideration, he related, would institute a “roach motel” principle: Once a school chooses to opt in, it will not be allowed to opt out.
“I’m troubled by that,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like wise public policy.”
Another proposed rule would mandate that a school opting into the system must require every employee to be fingerprinted, without exception.
“I don’t understand that part of it,” he said. “It would allow us no discretion to [exempt], say, certain veterans about whom there have never been any questions from a criminal background check.”
Still, he said, “I’m not necessarily implying those two rules would push us away. I’d like to know exactly what the details are.”
In many cases, Zwiebel said, Agudah’s views have been misrepresented. He pointed, among other things, to an error in a recent Jewish Week story — since acknowledged — that stated the group opposed a mandatory fingerprinting law and another to make yeshiva officials mandated reporters.
But referring to disturbing exposes that have appeared in this paper and elsewhere, he said, “Some of the anguish and pain that has come in the last few years, though uncomfortable, promotes consciousness of a problem that’s been in the shadows. So, though our views have been misrepresented, I can’t say [critics] are bad people. They obviously care a lot about this issue.” n
Hella Winston contributed to this story.
Monday, August 12, 2002
Haredi Group Balks At Clergy Law
Haredi Group Balks At Clergy Law
‘Some rabbis may not comply’ with measure mandating report of sexual abuse
suspicions,
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
‘Some rabbis may not comply’ with measure mandating report of sexual abuse
suspicions,
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Jewish Week - Monday, August 12, 2002 / 4 Elul 5762
New legislation adding clergy to those professionals who are legally required to report suspected child abuse is being welcomed by a wide range of rabbinic leaders and those who work with victims, but it is being opposed by an influential group in the fervently Orthodox community.
As Catholic Church officials struggle to deal with a flood of lawsuits over the sexual abuse of children by priests, the New York state Senate unanimously passed the measure. The Assembly is preparing a similar bill.
The legislation comes as Manhattan’s largest Reform congregation, Temple Emanu-El, remains silent on the sexual abuse charges against its cantor, though its leadership had information about the allegations before Howard Nevison was arrested last month. (See accompanying story.)
Professionals who come into contact with children — doctors, nurses and dentists, schoolteachers and administrators, psychologists, social workers, child care workers and law enforcement staff — must report to the state any suspected abuse.
But clergy have been exempt from the requirement in New York since 1828, when the state Legislature became the first in the nation to protect the “clergy-penitent privilege.” The law has stood through the efforts of the Catholic Church and Agudath Israel of America, which have blocked measures for change at the state and local levels.
This time, however, the Church is staying out of the fray, leaving only Agudath Israel, which represents the interests of fervently Orthodox Jews on a variety of issues, in opposing the addition of clergy to the law.
As Catholic Church officials struggle to deal with a flood of lawsuits over the sexual abuse of children by priests, the New York state Senate unanimously passed the measure. The Assembly is preparing a similar bill.
The legislation comes as Manhattan’s largest Reform congregation, Temple Emanu-El, remains silent on the sexual abuse charges against its cantor, though its leadership had information about the allegations before Howard Nevison was arrested last month. (See accompanying story.)
Professionals who come into contact with children — doctors, nurses and dentists, schoolteachers and administrators, psychologists, social workers, child care workers and law enforcement staff — must report to the state any suspected abuse.
But clergy have been exempt from the requirement in New York since 1828, when the state Legislature became the first in the nation to protect the “clergy-penitent privilege.” The law has stood through the efforts of the Catholic Church and Agudath Israel of America, which have blocked measures for change at the state and local levels.
This time, however, the Church is staying out of the fray, leaving only Agudath Israel, which represents the interests of fervently Orthodox Jews on a variety of issues, in opposing the addition of clergy to the law.
 |
| Rabbi David Zwiebel - Agudath Israel of America |
The organization, whose offices are essentially closed for the Passover holiday, is still undecided on whether it will formally oppose the bills, said David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president for governmental and
public affairs.
But, he said, if the law is passed without any exemption for clergy-penitent privilege, some Orthodox rabbis may choose not to comply with it.
“If the law tells the rabbis ‘you’ve got to go to the authorities on this’ and the rabbis feel that, for instance, a case of abuse goes back seven years and the best way to deal with it now is to refer the man to therapy rather than to law enforcement, they will choose to deal with it themselves,” said Zwiebel, who is also an attorney.
“You decide where your first duties and obligations are,” he said.
Illustrating the position of some in the haredi community, an Orthodox pediatrician in Brooklyn who has lectured on child abuse and disseminated tapes of her speeches has said that though she is required to report suspicions of child abuse, she checks with her rabbi to get permission.
Psychology professionals who work with victims of sexual and physical abuse say the new law will likely help their young victims.
It “makes it easier for clergy to do the right thing,” said Herb Neiburg, who directs behavioral medicine at the psychiatric Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, N.Y., and teaches pastoral counseling at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.
“When something is mandated by law, it takes away the guilt over breaking what used to be this old type of priest-penitent relationship,” he said.
“The tough part will be when clergy hear that other clergy have molested kids. It’s always tough to turn in a colleague, but it has to get done,” said Neiburg. “This law will open that door.”
Leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and centrist Orthodox movements have all publicly voiced support for the legislation.
But those who work with the fervently Orthodox say it may not work in their community, which is suspicious of secular authority and has its own way of dealing with problems — relying on rabbinic judgment.
“People go to rabbonim [rabbis] to talk,” said David Mandel, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn-based Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services. “This law may discourage people from going to talk to their rabbis if they think that the conversation is going to be on the record.”
That, Neiburg argues, “is like saying that since pediatricians are mandated reporters, no one will bring a kid with injuries that could look like abuse to a pediatrician, and it obviously doesn’t work that way.”
Even so, said Mandel, “the legislation may be premature” for the Orthodox community.
“Legislation will not necessarily dramatically improve the way the Orthodox community handles these issues,” he said. “Continuing to educate the community, to remove the stigma from the victim and his or her family and put the onus on the offender, will make the most dramatic changes.” n
public affairs.
But, he said, if the law is passed without any exemption for clergy-penitent privilege, some Orthodox rabbis may choose not to comply with it.
“If the law tells the rabbis ‘you’ve got to go to the authorities on this’ and the rabbis feel that, for instance, a case of abuse goes back seven years and the best way to deal with it now is to refer the man to therapy rather than to law enforcement, they will choose to deal with it themselves,” said Zwiebel, who is also an attorney.
“You decide where your first duties and obligations are,” he said.
Illustrating the position of some in the haredi community, an Orthodox pediatrician in Brooklyn who has lectured on child abuse and disseminated tapes of her speeches has said that though she is required to report suspicions of child abuse, she checks with her rabbi to get permission.
Psychology professionals who work with victims of sexual and physical abuse say the new law will likely help their young victims.
It “makes it easier for clergy to do the right thing,” said Herb Neiburg, who directs behavioral medicine at the psychiatric Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, N.Y., and teaches pastoral counseling at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.
“When something is mandated by law, it takes away the guilt over breaking what used to be this old type of priest-penitent relationship,” he said.
“The tough part will be when clergy hear that other clergy have molested kids. It’s always tough to turn in a colleague, but it has to get done,” said Neiburg. “This law will open that door.”
Leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and centrist Orthodox movements have all publicly voiced support for the legislation.
But those who work with the fervently Orthodox say it may not work in their community, which is suspicious of secular authority and has its own way of dealing with problems — relying on rabbinic judgment.
“People go to rabbonim [rabbis] to talk,” said David Mandel, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn-based Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services. “This law may discourage people from going to talk to their rabbis if they think that the conversation is going to be on the record.”
That, Neiburg argues, “is like saying that since pediatricians are mandated reporters, no one will bring a kid with injuries that could look like abuse to a pediatrician, and it obviously doesn’t work that way.”
Even so, said Mandel, “the legislation may be premature” for the Orthodox community.
“Legislation will not necessarily dramatically improve the way the Orthodox community handles these issues,” he said. “Continuing to educate the community, to remove the stigma from the victim and his or her family and put the onus on the offender, will make the most dramatic changes.” n
Friday, March 29, 2002
Rabbis Back Law To Report Child Abuse
Rabbis Back Law To Report Child Abuse
By Rachel Donadil
Forward - March 29, 2002
With the exception of a major ultra-Orthodox organization, rabbinical groups of all denominations say they support proposed legislation in New York State that would require clergy to report allegations of child abuse.
The proposal, which would broaden the state's Social Services Law to make clergy of all religions criminally liable if they do not report instances of child abuse, was advanced last week by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau in the wake of growing allegations of molestation within the Catholic Church. This week, the Democrat-controlled State Assembly proposed similar legislation, and a version passed in the Republican-controlled State Senate.
Most rabbinical groups said they were not concerned that the legislation would violate confidentiality between clergy and congregants.
"I think that full disclosure to the authorities would be not only acceptable, I think it's imperative," said Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Reform movement's Central Council of American Rabbis. "Ethical violations, whether they're violations of the criminal code or not, need to be dealt with very openly, fairly and directly by each denomination. Anything short of that is not keeping faith with our people."
The ultra-Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, however, said it was wary of the legislation, which would require clergy to "report to authorities whenever they have reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused," according to a March 19 statement by Morgenthau.
David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Aguda, said he feared that the proposal could infringe on "religious freedom."
"There ought to be some exemption for situations involving confidentiality," Zwiebel said. "To protect the Catholic confessional-type situation, and more specifically in our community, to protect those situations where a member of the community does want to confide in his rabbi and get guidance and counseling without fear of having the whole fury of the secular legal system descend on him."
Last summer, Aguda and the Catholic Archdiocese of New York joined forces to oppose a proposed bill in the City Council that would have required all schools, including parochial schools, to file a police report about any criminal act committed by students or staff.
Zwiebel said he was concerned that secular law would "not necessarily" respect religious concerns, such as the concept of mesira, a category of rabbinic canon law concerning when a Jew may inform on another to the secular government. He said that rabbis should evaluate issues "on a case-by-case" basis.
However, Zwiebel said, "if a person is perceived as an imminent danger to children or others, rabbis would say, `let's not handle this internally, let's bring it to outside authorities.'"
Looking more favorably on the legislation was the Orthodox Union, representing Modern Orthodox synagogues. "In principal we'd be supportive," said Harvey Blitz, president of O.U. "We believe that clergy have a responsibility to protect the safety of people from being victims."
"We were told by our Halachic authorities that we should without any type of delay report these instances to the police," said Steven Dworkin, the head of the Rabbinical Council of America, a Modern Orthodox rabbinical body, referring to religious law.
Two years ago O.U. faced its own abuse scandal when several top officials stepped down following claims that they ignored 30 years of abuse complaints against the director of its national youth group, Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
Blitz was unfazed by the thought that under the proposed legislation, O.U. clergy would have been criminally liable for ignoring allegations of abuse. "Maybe they would have reported it," Blitz said.
"We've tried very hard to change the culture at the O.U. in light of what happened" and make children feel "more comfortable" reporting abuse and leaders "more sensitive" to allegations, Blitz said.
Rabbi Joel Myers, president of Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly, also said he supported the proposal.
Myers said clergy confidentiality was not as "cut and dry" as some would make it out to be. "Every rabbi knows not everything is confidential or ought to be," he said. "Many clergy will say, `I'll be glad to listen but I won't be able to tell you if it's confidential until you tell me what the issue is.'"
The church scandal "may have nothing to do with confidentiality," Myers said. "Confidentiality becomes a nice sounding word, but that's not the issue. The issue is how bishops supervise priests."
"It is clear that social pressures on the clergy are such that transferring the obligation to enforce justice onto the legal system is a helpful step," said Rabbi David Teutsch, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
 |
| Robert Morgenthau - Manhattan DA |
Most rabbinical groups said they were not concerned that the legislation would violate confidentiality between clergy and congregants.
"I think that full disclosure to the authorities would be not only acceptable, I think it's imperative," said Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Reform movement's Central Council of American Rabbis. "Ethical violations, whether they're violations of the criminal code or not, need to be dealt with very openly, fairly and directly by each denomination. Anything short of that is not keeping faith with our people."
The ultra-Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, however, said it was wary of the legislation, which would require clergy to "report to authorities whenever they have reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused," according to a March 19 statement by Morgenthau.
 |
| Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel |
David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Aguda, said he feared that the proposal could infringe on "religious freedom."
"There ought to be some exemption for situations involving confidentiality," Zwiebel said. "To protect the Catholic confessional-type situation, and more specifically in our community, to protect those situations where a member of the community does want to confide in his rabbi and get guidance and counseling without fear of having the whole fury of the secular legal system descend on him."
Last summer, Aguda and the Catholic Archdiocese of New York joined forces to oppose a proposed bill in the City Council that would have required all schools, including parochial schools, to file a police report about any criminal act committed by students or staff.
Zwiebel said he was concerned that secular law would "not necessarily" respect religious concerns, such as the concept of mesira, a category of rabbinic canon law concerning when a Jew may inform on another to the secular government. He said that rabbis should evaluate issues "on a case-by-case" basis.
However, Zwiebel said, "if a person is perceived as an imminent danger to children or others, rabbis would say, `let's not handle this internally, let's bring it to outside authorities.'"
Looking more favorably on the legislation was the Orthodox Union, representing Modern Orthodox synagogues. "In principal we'd be supportive," said Harvey Blitz, president of O.U. "We believe that clergy have a responsibility to protect the safety of people from being victims."
"We were told by our Halachic authorities that we should without any type of delay report these instances to the police," said Steven Dworkin, the head of the Rabbinical Council of America, a Modern Orthodox rabbinical body, referring to religious law.
Two years ago O.U. faced its own abuse scandal when several top officials stepped down following claims that they ignored 30 years of abuse complaints against the director of its national youth group, Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
Blitz was unfazed by the thought that under the proposed legislation, O.U. clergy would have been criminally liable for ignoring allegations of abuse. "Maybe they would have reported it," Blitz said.
 |
| Rabbi Joel Myers |
Rabbi Joel Myers, president of Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly, also said he supported the proposal.
Myers said clergy confidentiality was not as "cut and dry" as some would make it out to be. "Every rabbi knows not everything is confidential or ought to be," he said. "Many clergy will say, `I'll be glad to listen but I won't be able to tell you if it's confidential until you tell me what the issue is.'"
 |
| Rabbi David Teutsch |
The church scandal "may have nothing to do with confidentiality," Myers said. "Confidentiality becomes a nice sounding word, but that's not the issue. The issue is how bishops supervise priests."
"It is clear that social pressures on the clergy are such that transferring the obligation to enforce justice onto the legal system is a helpful step," said Rabbi David Teutsch, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
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