The Scandal Grows - CNN Takes Up The Story...
The gathering storm in the USA, exposing the cover-up of child molestation in the orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY - has move up a notch, from the NY Times last month (see my previous article), to CNN now....
By the way, Rav Nuchum Rosenberg recently spoke in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Only around twenty people turned out to hear his dramatic presentation.
By the way, Rav Nuchum Rosenberg recently spoke in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Only around twenty people turned out to hear his dramatic presentation.
Nothing will change until the leadership is changed.
ReplyDeleteFor every Rav Nuchem Rosenberg, there are a dozen Rav Avi Shafrans willing to claim that the real number is really more like 0 in 1000 and that this is all a hysteria being made up by haters of Torah and Judaism. And since these people are the ones who speak to "the Gedolim" then that is what "the Gedolim" really believe. So how can they be expected to make changes?
Rabbi Rosenberg states, and then CNN picks up and repeats, that one in five kids in Brooklyn's chasidishe community have been molested.
ReplyDeleteIs that rhetorical - or a real statistic?
Hi Joel
ReplyDeleteThe generally used statistics (not specific to Jewish communities) are:
1. One in three girls have experienced sexual abuse by the age of 18.
2. One in five boys have experienced sexual abuse by the age of 18.
Aside from one survey several years ago, there are no publicly available statistics for Jewish or Orthodox Jewish populations.
The one survey that was performed (using questionaires in women's mikves), concluded the Jewish community is no better/worse than the general population.
Magen's statistics, mainly from Ramat Beit Shemesh, show that almost two thirds of victims who reported sexual abuse are boys.
Conclusion: whereas there is no reason to believe orthodox Jewish children are more/less safe than other populations, the orthodox BOYS appear to be at higher risk of being sexually abused than in the general population.
Hey Morris,
ReplyDeleteWhen are you going to close Magen?
There is no longer a need for you now that rabbonim and askanim have taken on the abuse issue. They certainly know better than you and yours how to handle abuse.
Why tax the public with yet another organization.
Unfortunately, judging by the (ever increasing) number of calls Magen receives for help, Magen's services will be needed for the conceivable future.
ReplyDeleteALL TORAHS, TALMUDS, QURANS MUST BE BURNED!
ReplyDeleteSecond century Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, one of Judaism’s very greatest rabbis and a creator of Kabbalah, sanctioned pedophilia—permitting molestation of baby girls even younger than three! He proclaimed,
“A proselyte who is under the age of three years and a day is permitted to marry a priest.” 1
Yebamoth 60b,
Subsequent rabbis refer to ben Yohai’s endorsement of pedophilia as "halakah," or binding Jewish law. 2 Yebamoth 60b
Has ben Yohai, child rape advocate, been disowned by modern Jews? Hardly. Today, in ben Yohai’s hometown of Meron, Israel, tens of thousands of orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews gather annually for days and nights of singing and dancing in his memory.
References to pedophilia abound in the Talmud. They occupy considerable sections of Treatises Kethuboth and Yebamoth and are enthusiastically endorsed by the Talmud’s definitive legal work, Treatise Sanhedrin.
The Pharisees Endorsed Child Sex
The rabbis of the Talmud are notorious for their legal hairsplitting, and quibbling debates. But they share rare agreement about their right to molest three year old girls. In contrast to many hotly debated issues, hardly a hint of dissent rises against the prevailing opinion (expressed in many clear passages) that pedophilia is not only normal but scriptural as well! It’s as if the rabbis have found an exalted truth whose majesty silences debate.
Because the Talmudic authorities who sanction pedophilia are so renowned, and because pedophilia as “halakah” is so explicitly emphasized, not even the translators of the Soncino edition of the Talmud (1936) dared insert a footnote suggesting the slightest criticism. They only comment: “Marriage, of course, was then at a far earlier age than now.” 3
In fact, footnote 5 to Sanhedrin 60b rejects the right of a Talmudic rabbi to disagree with ben Yohai's endorsement of pedophilia:
"How could they [the rabbis], contrary to the opinion of R. Simeon ben Yohai, which has scriptural support, forbid the marriage of the young proselyte?" 4
1 Yebamoth 60b, p. 402.
2 Yebamoth 60b, p. 403.
3 Sanhedrin 76a.
4 In Yebamoth 60b, p. 404, Rabbi Zera disagrees that sex with girls under three years and one day should be endorsed as halakah.