Tzedek-Tzedek

Warning from "Magen" It has come to our attention that there is a man driving around Ramat Bet Shemesh who has tried to abduct children, usually girls from the street. He has seen to be driving an old white 1991 year Subaru type car (box like). He is darkish in complexion, has a beard (not short), and was wearing a velvet Kippa. The car seats had lines on them – in a crisscross pattern which creates a pattern of small ‘boxes’ or ‘squares’. His modus operandi seems to be that he drives next to the child, stops and calls to them saying he has sweets/mamtakim, or that he is lost and needs directions on how to go out of the Rama. When the children approached the car he tried to grab them and then attempted to molest them. His last known attempts were on Nahal Arugot. This person may have been seen a few years ago doing similar activities – or at times sitting in a car doing activities not meant for the public domain. Anyon...

It has recently been reported that Rav Moti Elon will be indicted for sex crimes against minors. This follows a year long police investigation, which was sparked off by the announcement in February 2010, by a then little-known organization Takana, alleging that Rav Elon had behaved inappropriately with male students. This has subsequently raised questions regarding Takana itself. While the public has been generally appreciative of the courage of Takana to ‘out’ Rav Elon, probably the most charismatic and popular rabbi in the National Religious camp, even with his own radio and national TV shows, it was questioned whether Takana themselves had actually covered up his alleged crimes for too long? Takana’s mandate is to investigate allegations of inappropriate and abusive behaviour by rabbonim and teachers within the National Religious camp. Where the investigation shows the allegations to be substantive, corrective measures are recommended and implemented. In the well publicized ca...

Who would have thought , just a few years ago, that the great taboos of Jewish communal life, child sex abuse and wife abuse, would be the subject of an exhaustive and authoritative book by Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn, an important rabbi and scholar. On the other hand, the fact that no Jewish book publisher was willing to even stock this important book, nor was any other rabbi willing to give the book a public haskama , shows that even this erudite and passionate work, is more akin to just the first step of Chairman Mao’s Great March. Regretfully, there is much more work to be done in bringing more sunlight to this methodically hidden aspect of Jewish communal life. Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn’s powerful two volume book Child & Domestic Abuse reveals the horrors of child abuse and wife beating in the orthodox Jewish community.  Rabbi Eidensohn has  collected a series of articles by psychologists, lawyers, abuse survivors, communal activists and rabbis. In addition, in the secon...

Pini Taub Speaks Out: This is well worth taking a few minutes to watch BOTH parts. Part One Part Two

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!! ".

In the third such case in as many months, another anglo-saxon (English speaking) man has been arrested in Ramat Bet Shemesh Aleph under suspicion of child sex abuse. This past Friday night, a 29 year old American tourist was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15 year old girl, and two teenage boys. According to Walla news-service , the man’s custody was extended in court yesterday (Tuesday), to enable the police to further investigate. Beyond the published information, the man apparently is from Brooklyn , NY , and he was lodging with an anglo family on Nahal Soreq, Ramat Bet Shemesh. The alleged incidents apparently took place in the Ayalon Park and in the host family’s apartment. The man is apparently from a prestigious rabbinical family in NY. This arrest follows the arrest several weeks ago of a 60 yo English speaking man at his home on Nahal Dolev, who allegedly operated also in the area of Nahal Revivim. This man is alleged to have committed sex crimes against min...

[Introductory Note: There have been several cases in Bet Shemesh/RBS in recent weeks of charismatic men who have a Pied Piper influence over kids, some of whom they allegedly have molested. The kids' parents were aware of the 'specialness' of the relationship, even the peculiarity, but were not aware of the risks. I offer this article as guidance to help parents become more aware of the potential downside of these relationships. I have used males, but whereas most pedophiles are male, their child victims can be equally likely girls or boys.]   ------- If you reminisce back to your school days,   you can probably think of a specific adult who had a profound influence on you and helped you overcome your growing-up challenges.  There are some particularly gifted and wonderful people who are able to bridge an age gap, and thereby positively engage with someone who is even many years their junior. Such people can apply this talent to working with kids and youth in a pro...

This 9-minute TV report, about an alleged sex abuse case in Kiryat Yoel, USA, has already had a major impact. Take less than ten minutes out of your life, and find out why....

The case of Rabbi Motti Elon, the charismatic National Religious rabbi, has now been investigated by the police in Israel , who are apparently recommending prosecuting Rabbi Elon for child abuse and other sex crimes. Meantime, shocking details are emerging from the ultra-orthodox community of Komemiyut , located near Kiryat Gat, regarding a decades long cover-up of a child molester in the community, Shimshon Walzer   – who is reported to have attacked dozens of children. The alleged perpetrator is now in the USA , and is unlikely to return to face his investigators.       Of the 40 cases in which there is suspicion of abuse by Walzer, the police have reportedly collected complaints and testimony from 16 purported victims, who were aged between 7 and 16 when the acts were committed. Two complained against an additional suspect (who was a minor during the time of most of the alleged offenses). Many of the witnesses, now married and living outside the moshav,...

This brief video presentation includes much of the information which Helise Pollack MSW presented at the recent "Magen" evening:

This is a brief review of the "Magen" evening, this past Wednesday evening, with Helise Pollack MSW,  "Protecting Your Kids from Abuse" .     80% of abused kids never tell. Kids don't tell, for many reasons, including being scared of being blamed, scared of 'consequences', feelings of guilt, embarrassment, confused moral issues (loshon hora, breaking secrets, etc) In order to encourage kids to tell (hopefully very early into a situation of potential abuse), any information your kids tell you during routine discourse, should be greeted with encouragement, "I'm glad you're telling me this" - rather than responding instantly with criticism. The worse the news your kid tells you, the more we need to fight down our critical response. "I cheated in school today, and I got caught." "I'm glad you're telling me this". If chas veshalom your kid tells you (or even hints - which is more likely) he/she was abuse...

On the one hand, the Catholic Church has been accused (and found guilty in formal reports in the USA and Ireland ) of systematically turning a blind eye, covering up, and enabling child abuse. On the other, the Church is now accusing the media of stirring up international hysteria, and being disproportionate in the outcry. Similar arguments have gone back-and-forth in the Jewish community in recent months and years – including on this blog. The sexual abuse of children, even more so than physical, emotional, or neglect forms of abuse, generates a strong outcry.   The sense of despair and betrayal is amplified when discovering that a family member, teacher, camp leader, coach, day care worker, doctor or religious leader perpetuated the abuse.   It is estimated that 85% of victims of child sexual abuse knew they attackers (see: http://futureofchildren.org / futureofchildren/publications / docs/19_02_08.pdf ) When men-of-the-cloth are involved as either a perpetrator, or ...

Cases of clerical sex-abuse and the Catholic Church’s mismanagement – amounting to systemic enablement – have surfaced and spread out from Boston, where they were first revealed in 2002, then throughout the USA - and are now spreading across Europe, including major scandals in Ireland and Germany. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) himself was responsible for managing sexual abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich in 1980 and when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Apparently, in Munich, a priest Cardinal Ratzinger had sent to therapy for pedophilia, was returned to pastoral work with children. The priest was later convicted on charges of molesting boys. Last week, it was revealed that an office under Cardinal Ratzinger’s command had stopped the prosecution in 1996 of Wisconsin priest Lawrence Murphy, who admitted molesting 200 boys at a school for the deaf where he worked for 20 years. As the first victims and insiders within th...

Magen , a new, local organization dedicated to helping children and families who have been affected by abuse, will be providing a series of public information announcements to help educate our community about child sexual abuse. What can parents do to prevent sexual abuse? While not all abuse can be prevented, these are things parents can do to make their children less vulnerable to sexual abuse, and to increase the chances that children will tell their parents if they ARE abused: Teach children that some parts of their body are private.  Tell them that other people should not be touching or looking at their private parts unless it’s you, your spouse or their doctor in order to take help them in some way (to see if they have a rash or injury, take their temperature, or other age-appropriate examples). If a doctor needs to touch them in those private areas, a parent should be there too. Teach children that if someone tries to...

Magen, a new organization in Bet Shemesh/RBS, dedicated to helping children and families who have been affected by abuse, will be providing a series of information announcement to help educate our community about child sexual abuse. By Miriam Friedman, MSW,  "Magen",  Ramat Beit Shemesh Recently, people in our community have started becoming more aware of the issue of sexual abuse in schools. While this is very important, it is also important to know that most sexual abuse comes from a family member (such as a cousin or uncle), or a family friend or acquaintance, (such as a neighbor or a classmate’s father). Because sexual abuse is a crime of manipulation and intimacy, the “Stranger Dangers” we teach our children don’t apply. Pedophiles know their victims. Slowly and methodically, over time, they develop the child’s trust, and the parents’ trust too. This process is called “grooming” the victim, and creates a relationship where the child is more lik...

[This article is re-published by kind permission of Life In Israel , where you will find a passionate response by many in the comments section. The reason I believe this article is important is that, after some 18 months of outcry in Ramat Beit Shemesh over the reported mishandling of several cases of child abuse in the community, this is the first direct - tho' anonymous - response from within the community by "the other side" of this debate] 12 Questions For David Morris: BY: An Anonymous Guest Post (We'll make it easy---True or False) 1) When your article in the JP first came out , the first claim you made to Rabbi Malinowitz was that you were just a mouthpiece for your Rav, who didn't want his own name on the statements there ( for personal reasons, which you stated , and which were perfectly understandable)True or False? 2)Your second claim ,made a few days later, was that you meant other Rabbonim, not Rav Malinowitz , chas veshalom. True or False?...

In the course of one day this week, two mental health professionals independently told me they are seeing an "epidemic" of child abuse, including child sex abuse. However, one doesn't need to be a mental health professional to have the impression that child abuse is on the rise in Israel . One just needs to read the morning papers. This week's stories included: 4 teenagers were arrested in the north of Israel on suspicion of repeatedly raping a girl, now aged 14, since she was 10 years old. Altogether ten youths are suspected of offenses against the girl. Cult leader, Goel Ratzon , was remanded in a Tel Aviv court this week. Ratzon, who fathered dozens of children from at least 17 women, is suspected of a series of rape, harassment and enslavement offenses committed over a period of more than a decade. Amongst the allegations are that Ratson sexually abused some of his 40-odd children. The case of Avinoam Braverman has continued to shock the country, with fur...