UNITED STATES
Daas Torah
Full Disclosure: David Morris is one of my heroes. Someone who has successfully devoted his time and energy to help other people with a major chesed organization and one dealing with child abuse .[My nephew Rabbi Shmuel Zalman Eidensohn runs competing chesed and child abuse organizations in Beit Shemesh and works together with Rav Malinowitz] He wrote a chapter in my sefer on child abuse where it is interesting to note – he does not once mention going to the police in cases of child abuse – but only to his organization Magen. He is also very intelligent and sincere – but like all of us has issues where his emotion blinds his rational thought. One of them is Rav Malinowitz and anything connected with him.
1) Friday he published a rather egregious example of misinformation and slander. To set the stage for his slander against Rav Malinowtiz he first brought up something unrelated to the Seminary Scandal – the suicide of a child abuse victim – Corporal Dave Gordon. Yes it is true that the trauma of being molested as a child unfortunately endured into adulthood for Dave Gordon. But the Seminary Scandal is not a case of child abuse. The Seminary Scandal involved adults who were involved in either being touched or hugged by their teacher. It is not clear at this stage to what degree the contact was forced and unwanted or was consensual. This is not the same as a child being molested or raped. Both halacha and secular law recognize a distinction between consensual and involuntary contact and that which involves a child and an adult. Thus the case of Dave Gordon – while unfortunate – was just brought in to inflame emotions. Or to be more generous, while David Morris was upset about the death of Dave Gordon – he incorrectly free associated to the Seminary Scandal in order to criticize Rav Malinowitz.
2) David Morris is offering any existing victims – something he doesn’t know to be true – the services of his organization dealing with sexual abuse. While that is very generous – it would be helpful to first establish there are in fact victims. However the offer is clearly a club to attack the IBD for what he alleges is improper response to victims. Even though in fact he doesn’t know that victims exist or how they have been dealt with – either by the CBD or the IBD. Rather strange to offer help in a crime that you don’t know even happened?! While the CBD is claiming unofficially that there were women who were raped – however no official declaration has been made nor has any evidence been produced or even a single woman making anonymous public claims. Clearly no one has gone to the police. David Morris is fully aware that he has no evidence that there are victims who have been traumatized. Unlike Frum Follies he apparently does not have a pipeline to Gottesman and the CBD. But he believes whatever Frum Follies posts – at least as long as it is an attack on Rav Malinowitz. In other words his justification for this offer is that since Rav Malinowitz is involved and he just “knows” that Rav Malinowitz will mishandle the victims that means there must be victims that need help.
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