All Jews, and especially the Orthodox, should appreciate The Jewish Week’s continuing investigation and reporting on the abuse of children in our schools and communities. Sadly, that will not be the case. There will be the usual cries of Orthodox-bashing by the usual suspects.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has now revealed that his office prosecuted almost 100 child molestation cases in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. As an observant Jew, I am disgusted by the actions and lack thereof of many Orthodox rabbis and their followers to these crimes against their children. As documented by The Jewish Week, many ultra-Orthodox rabbis pressure the victims and their parents to give the abusers in their midst a free pass. One would think that if 60,000-plus ultra-Orthodox Jews can gather together at two New York stadiums to condemn the Internet, they should be able to muster at least 10 percent of that amount to publicly demand that their rabbis stop looking the other way when adult predators abuse their children.
That may never happen, for as the media reported last week, 1,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered at a sold-out event to raise money for a therapist accused of molesting a girl during four years of counseling, starting when she was 12. They are the real Orthodox-bashers, and they should be ashamed.
Staten Island
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