NEW YORK
The Jewish Week
Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor
With increased scrutiny on the handling of sex-abuse cases involving members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox community, some elected officials are beginning to take a stand on practices tied to District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the leading candidates to succeed him last week called on Hynes to discourage rabbis from screening abuse allegations before they are reported to the authorities.
The statements came after The New York Times joined many other media in detailing instances where alleged victims were intimidated within their community.
But few elected officials this week wanted to take a position one way or the other regarding another controversial practice of Hynes’ office: that of withholding from the public a list of names of Orthodox people accused or convicted of sexual abuse crimes. The list was compiled through a hotline called Kol Tzedek, which was launched in 2009 with the goal of encouraging victims of abuse to come forward to law enforcement.
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