UNITED STATES
Frum Follies
Child sex abuse is covered up by intimidating victims everywhere in the ultra-orthodox world from Israel to the US, from the northern reaches of Canada and Europe to the southern tips of South Africa, Argentina and Australasia. Periodically some unusual victims break the code of silence and the civil judiciary tries, convicts, and sentences the offenders. But most of the predators continue to offend protected by the community which covers up the crimes and intimidates the witnesses. The rabbis who orchestrate the cover ups escape unscathed.
But an unusual set of individuals and circumstances changed the game in Australia. Many of those complicit were exposed on national and international media, top rabbis were forced to resign their positions. “Peak” Jewish bodies in Australia have denounced this sordid pattern. Chabad, the dominant group in the Australian rabbinate, is reeling. Even its international organization was forced to implicitly apologize and promise to behave better in the future. All this got sensational coverage in Australian media and the Guardian (UK).
This was all because of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse. The Commission is looking at many groups in Australia including the Catholic Church, other religious groups and various children’s sports programs. They were authorized by the national government and all the individual states by 2012 and they are currently authorized to function until 2017. They are well resourced with a staff of attorneys and investigators and they have the subpoena power to compel the delivery of documents and testimony (both in public and in private).
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