Rav Moshe Soloveichik: Report Child Abuse to the Police!
Rav Moshe Soloveichik of Chicago recently spoke at an conference organized by the Jewish Board for Advocacy for Children, dealing with sex abuse in the Orthodox world. Rav Soloveichik's impassioned speech attacks the policy, still current in many orthodox Jewish communities, that child abuse should be dealt with as an internal community matter, and that victims and their families should be actively dissuaded (he mentions threats to the shidduchim of their children, etc) from reporting to the authorities. I have witnessed such policies, very close to home, and the damage they have caused our children. Kudos to Rav Moshe Soloveichik for standing up and declaring, without nuance or ambiguity, " go immediately to the police!! ".