Tzedek-Tzedek

The seismic shock wave of political revolution which started with a Tunisian immolating himself, has spread through North Africa to the Middle East, and is dominoing around our region faster than the CNN updates can keep track of. Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Algeria...who knows where next? It’s clearly not us , here in Ramat Bet Shemesh Although these events are alarmingly close to us geographically, they seem worlds away politically. These regimes are tyrannical – and our Israeli democracy is thriving. We overthrow our governments via the ballot box, or they implode in coalition debacles, far too frequently for discontent to build up. It has been fascinating watching the evaporation of paradigms in the events around our region. For example, the European Community recently put out a statement that one should not allow the events in Cairo et al “to distract us from reaching a resolution of the Palestinian conflict”. This is using the Old Paradigm that the big prob...

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....

  [Part One] I have just returned from a business trip to the USA. While there,  I picked up on two angles on campaigns in the USA for justice against child abuse enablers. One is Catholic (big time campaign) and the other is Jewish (small time campaign). The word “enabler”, by the way, is used to describe people who provide a conducive environment for pedophiles to operate. It’s a secondary act, rather than the direct act of abuse against the child. Some types of "enabling" are illegal in the USA and in Israel , such as failure to report child abuse, when this reporting is required/mandated by law; or where the enablers interfere with the course of justice. ------ An American Catholic friend of mine told me that the number one issue in the Catholic Church today is the church’s mishandling of child abuse cases. You have surely hear about the Catholic campaign, which is targeting both Catholic clergy who have abusing children, and the secondary enablers, being the ch...

[David Morris: I was approached by an adult survivor of child sex-abuse, and asked if I would be willing to publish this. I considered not publishing, because the imagery is so shocking, particularly to the Jewish orthodox sensitivities I share. On reflection, I think the lesson of this piece is that, in the same way a victim's anger must be directed (solely) to the perpetrator and his enablers, so our shock must be directed solely to the violation, and not to the healing process]  SURVIVING and HEALING From childhood sexual abuse Part one Anger is an important part of healing.    Survivors of childhood sexual abuse blame themselves for what happened.    This belief causes a tremendous amount of shame and is one of the reasons why they often never disclose the abuse.    The following piece may shock the reader.    The visualization exercise of going back in time to the place where the abuse happened and placing the anger and respons...

Does the Army Need the Dati Leumi – or the Dati Leumi Need the Army? Over 25% of combat troops in the Israel Defence Forces are now National Religious (Dati Leumi). Many of these participate in the Hesder Yeshiva program, which was established in 1953 by the Keren BeYavne Yeshiva. The Hesder program typically last five years, of which some 16 months is army training and active service, while the remainder is spent in religious studies in over 40 yeshivot around the country. On the one hand, this program is the flag-ship of the National Religious camp – combining torah studies with fulfilling the practical mitzva of defending the Jewish people and the Jewish State – paid for by the Ministry of Defence. On the other hand, many of the Army's finest and most motivated troops are from the Dati Leumi camp in general, and from the Hesder Yeshivot in particular. Israel's military cemeteries attest to the awesome heroism of so many of of these young men in the battlefield. ...

Motty & Mali Borger had been married for just two days when Motti “fell” from a seventh-floor balcony at the Avenue Plaza Hotel on 13 th  Avenue at 47 th  Street in Brooklyn , NY . It is reported that Motty had disclosed to his new bride that he was a victim of sex abuse, and that when she was asleep, he went to the balcony and threw himself off. I have no idea as to the veracity of the reports about the background to the Motty Borger case. We should clearly leave the investigation to the police and relevant authorities, while encouraging anyone with information related to the case to report it immediately to the police.  What is certain, is that the effects of child-abuse often have long term impact upon the victims/survivors, resulting in severe psychological, psychiatric and physical illness even decades later; and there are many cases in which abuse victims have tragically resorted to suicide. Indeed there is initial research which indicates that...

(Photo for illustrative purposes only) Note from Tzedek-Tzedek: Rabbi Yosef Blau is the mashgiach ruchani at Yeshiva University and its affiliated rabbinical school Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchal Elchanan. Rav Blau has been active in trying help survivors of abuse in the Orthodox community. Rav Blau has kindly agreed to offer his insights on Tzedek-Tzedek into the question of Rabbinical involvement in child abuse cases in the orthodox community. ----------- By Rabbi Yosef Blau  My experience is with the Orthodox community in America but from what I have heard the situation in Israel is similar. As in many other personal areas, Orthodox Jews, when they are informed about abuse, instinctively turn to their rabbis. Unfortunately the rabbis (with the exception of young rabbis recently trained in modern Orthodox rabbinical schools) have no training and are not equipped to evaluate the accusations. When the accusations are about other Orthodox rabbis they assume that such beha...