NEW YORK
Times of Israel
Michael J. Salamon
All over the Orthodox world the talk at the Sabbath table, at the synagogue, even outside while walking the dog is not so much about the Asifa at Citifield but how The New York Times took on both a powerful lobby and a powerful District Attorney. In a series of articles which ran just over a week ago reporters Ray Rivera and Sharon Otterman, described the loathsome approach of the Orthodox community of Brooklyn, New York whose members protect child abusers from the authorities and shun those who report them. The topic is not new having been reported by Hella Winston in the Jewish Week and covered by the Forward over the last several years. However, because these newspapers tend to be viewed by a limited readership in the Jewish world and completely ignored by the ultra-Orthodox community the reports were easily be overlooked, even disregarded.
Cloistered Jewish communities would like to believe that pedophilia does not exist in their world and if it does, it is extremely rare. We know that this is a fallacious position. Abuse exists in every community. We also know that not only do certain rabbis refuse to report abusers but the therapists and social agencies that they work with are instructed not to follow the law of mandated reporters and they usually comply.
The argument most often used for not reporting abusers is the religious law known as Mesirah – reporting a Jew to non-Jewish authorities. This argument has been shown by several religious Jewish courts to be invalid when there is a threat to another person’s well-being. There are other reasons given though for not reporting. They include lashon hora – spreading false rumors and the reliance on rabbinic direction known as Daat Torah. The lashon hora argument states that by reporting someone without clear and direct evidence you taint him or her even before knowing if they are guilty.
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