NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward
Editorial
Ever since the Forward began publishing stories in December detailing allegations by former students that they were abused by rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys, a certain trope has been voiced by Y.U.’s defenders. It goes something like this: The alleged incidents occurred as long as three decades ago. They are, if not ancient history, then certainly from another time when behaviorial mores were different, when religious authority was more absolute, when acts that are deemed offensive now were more acceptable.
As Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, asked in a recent column, “is it fair to apply many current standards of behavior, at a time when a teacher touching a student can be grounds for disciplinary action, to an era when it was not unusual for European-born yeshiva high school rebbes to slap or even hit boys, who tended to take such actions in stride?”
But the Y.U. rabbis weren’t accused of Jewish-style corporal punishment, loathsome though that might be. George Finkelstein was accused of repeatedly wrestling with students in his home and office, pinning them down so tightly that many reported feeling his erect penis on their bodies. Macy Gordon was accused of sodomizing two students in their dorm rooms. This doesn’t amount to a slap to the cheek; it’s an assault to the body. To minimize these allegations is both inaccurate and hugely unfair to those who say they were victimized.
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