NEW YORK
WNYC
The Brooklyn District attorney is pushing for legislation that would add religious leaders to those required to report allegations of sex abuse to authorities in the wake of criticism over his handling of such cases in the Orthodox Jewish community, according to the New York Times.
Critics of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes say he allows the community a free pass – not objecting when a group representing Hasidic and Orthodox Jews instructed followers to first get permission from a rabbi before reporting alleged sexual abuse and refusing to make public the more than 95 recently indicted.
But Paul Berger, staff writer for the Jewish Daily Forward, told the Brian Lehrer Show earlier this month that it is more nuanced than that.
“He still expects that those cases are still brought to him,” he said. “If you want to get somebody’s advice … then it would make sense that they should seek the guidance of a rabbi first.”
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