NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward
Editorial
It is now eight months since the Forward reported allegations that two rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan had sexually and physically abused students during the 1970s and 1980s, and that the Y.U. administration allowed the rabbis to go to other jobs rather than face prosecution. Eight months since the school hired a law firm to conduct what it promised would be an independent investigation of the charges. According to reliable sources, the investigation, which reportedly cost $2.5 million, should be complete by now.
And yet America’s flagship Modern Orthodox educational institution maintains its silence.
All the university will say is this, from spokesman Mike Scagnoli: “Nothing has changed since last we spoke. That’s all I have for you at this time.”
But things do change. Another cycle of students will soon enter a high school that has not openly come to terms with the claims of many of its former students for whom the pain of past abuse remains quite present. As yet another example of how widespread knowledge of that abuse was at Y.U., and how ridiculous it is for administrators to plead ignorance, a handful of former students are publicly apologizing for their own “utter silence.”
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