ISRAEL
Jewish Journal
by Eliana Rudee
Posted on Nov. 7, 2016
As Rabbanit Malka Puterkovsky addresses members of the press, her smile lights up the room and one almost forgets the dark subject about which she speaks. Puterkovsky is the founder and director of Takana, a forum that provides alternative ways to report sexual assault within Israel’s religious community. While Israel’s mainstream victims of sexual assault report directly to the police, religious victims prefer more discretion in reporting sexual crimes so that their names and photographs are not attached. To many in small and close-knit communities, anonymity is more important than reprimanding the attacker, as being assaulted and raped is often stigmatized, sometimes even more for the victim than the attacker. While in the general public, an estimated 15 percent of sexual harassment cases are brought to the police, for the religious community, the figures are drastically lower. While Takana may succeed in supporting Modern Orthodox victims of sexual assault, some argue that they also protect the abusers by taking a “soft” approach.
Puterkovsky, with other Torah scholars, religious educators, jurists, and social workers, founded Takana in 2003 within the Orthodox feminist framework that is growing in Israel. “All of the deep stream changes happening in Israeli society have to do with Orthodox feminism,” says Member of Knesset Rachel Azaria, an Orthodox feminist herself. “This is a real revolution that is happening, and one of the first issues that started Orthodox feminism is realizing that there is sexual abuse in the schools and places nobody [previously] thought.” However, mainstream politicians are slow to follow suit. Azaria claims she is one of the only Israeli political leaders calling for the resignation of Etzion Bloc Mayor Davidi Perl, who was accused of sexual abuse over the past few years. Many followers of sexual abusers deny that their leader is capable of abusing children and students. Some associates of accused individuals have even gone so far as to threaten Takana members. In 2010, Takana Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein received death threats from an associate of Rabbi Mordechai Elon, saying he would “hurt him in any way he could.”
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