While Bryan Bramly, the Arizona rabbi accused of molesting a child, denies any wrongdoing and nothing has been proved, the story became that much more real today when he was extradited to New York City, where the crime is alleged to have occurred. Given the public outcry against the Catholic Church in recent weeks, I am curious to see how the Jewish community will respond.
To be sure, this is not the first time a rabbi has either been accused of or found to have actually committed such crimes. In fact, when the story began to emerge just before Passover, I was surprised to find that the accused is not an Orthodox rabbi, but he is affiliated with the Conservative movement.
That's not a swipe at Orthodoxy. It's simply a reflection of the fact that in past years, every major case of sexual abuse by rabbis, both in America and in Israel, has involved Orthodox rabbis. Because I identify as Orthodox, that act causes me great pain.
It must be admitted because it is probably no coincidence that sexual abuse by clergy seems much more prevalent in communities with stricter guidelines about sexuality. I am not suggesting that one causes the other. But it is not something that we can afford to ignore, either.
I also appreciate that there is no central authority for Jews that parallels that of the Catholic Church. We do not have the kind of institutional structure that can control problems in the same way, even if it wanted to. That is why it becomes especially important to get everything out in the open as quickly as possible.
Moreover, if our anger at the Church's handling of this problem is more than the Catholic-bashing that many Catholic leaders, including the Pope, have claimed it is, then we must address this issue with no reservations about how it looks for rabbis, Judaism, or the Jewish community.
The only thing about which to worry now are the victims. I include in that any accused clergy who may actually be innocent. But our concern with protecting them cannot outweigh the concern for people who claim to have been abused.
We must not hide behind worries of protecting the supposedly unjustly accused or concern about lashon harah (speaking ill of a fellow human being) or bringing shame upon our community. There can be no greater shame than invoking legal principles, Jewish or American, as excuses for not addressing the evil of religious leaders who molest children.
The coming days will test the moral fiber of the Jewish community in general and the rabbinic community in particular. I hope and pray that we pass the test.
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The Secrets have to be opened. The priests need to be exposed and charged and put away !! By the Local Law Enforcement structures !! Expose the Secrets! Stop The Cover=Up !!
But offcourse it is far more profitable for the media to sell controversy then report on the whole truth. Focusing on the negative and turning a blind eye on the positives aspects of society is getting tiring. I would rather judge an individual by the content of their character then by the label they give themselves.
Let's filter that with "general society WITH COLLEGE DEGREES". Not that the education itself means anything...it doesn't...but the socioeconomic conditions DO need to be comparable. Desperate people living in abject poverty are much more likely to abuse family members, and much of that is due to the fact that they were abused; the cycle of abuse is much more prevalent among poor & illiterate people.
I'd posit the the vast majority of child raping clergy were NOT abused themselves.
Secondly...with no speculation necessary, it's clear as day that the QUANTITY OF VICTIMS per-abuser is MASSIVELY larger when comparing clerical pedophiles vs. laic pedophiles. I have yet to hear of a priest accused of abusing ONE child; it's usually 20-300...over DECADES.
Serial pedophile rapists are VERY rare in the general public; the vast majority involve one family member.
ANY number is too high, but the rabbi in this post is really not in the same league as "the pros" in the Catholic church, nor are the amateurs in the general populace.
They're all slackers, in comparison.
And those who cover up for the abuser should also be arrested for aiding and abetting. Even if that means your Aunt Martha.
"Holy" trappings should not protect a man from due process.
No person should be immune from the law despite their position in society.
Thus, I don't believe "stricter guidelines" in general have anything to do with it (if anything, that should be positive). And I definitely don't blame celibacy (presumably those rabbis were married). But boys and girls are meant to grow up around each other, both in order to develop a normal sexuality, to learn respect for each other, and, not the least, to learn to see each other as persons, not as sexual objects. One-gender environments don't teach chastity, they teach the opposite: they teach teenagers to get aroused every time they set eyes at someone of the other sex, or even hear a voice. When you never talk to women, and don't have a clue how they think, how can you think of them as subjects, with their own rights and feelings? All they are to you are objects for your dreams and your desires.
Rabbis, as I understand it, are also subject to the penitent exception.
Jewish religious leaders should consider re-evaluating their privacy code.
Humans are far from perfect. Some individuals, presumably of every religion, every color, every nation, will exhibit aberrant, criminal behavior.
Challenging secular law to protect individuals that are committing crimes such as murder, rape or child molestation hurts society as a whole because it does not effectively stop the very harmful behavior.
If religious organizations what to retain tax-free status and moral/ethical standing, then clerics of all religions must do significantly more to stop known harmful behavior.
As you point out, Jewish organizations have no comparative structure to many other religious organizations.
What the Catholic Church did that is particularly repugnant, the contemptible behavior that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church engaged in at the highest levels, was the systematic tolerance of, protecting, and fostering of this aberrant behavior. It is for the systematic protection of these individuals for their own personal and organizational benefit, that organizations deserve the greatest scorn. And, since they used their power to continue these behaviors their leaders should be held criminally resonsible as part of a continuing criminal conspiracy.
Where the cleric exception interferes with the protection of the rest of society, the shameful and cynical use of the cleric exemption must be eliminated.
I don't care if the guy is an Orthodox Rabbi, a Catholic Priest, the Emperor of Japan, or my neighborhood plumber. If there is substancial evidence that he molested a child, he should be arrested and given a trial. Justice must be both blind and fair for a society to operate properly.
Right, but it does depend on what you mean by "causes". I think that "communities with stricter guidelines about sexuality" attract them. It makes for a good mask.
Perception and reality are two different things. Sometimes we perceive what we want to see.
Rabbi Hirshfeld has made many great points here. In particular that "that there is no central authority for Jews that parallels that of the Catholic Church."
The lack of central institutional authority is a spiritual strength of Judaism. And maybe a reason why it has survived so long.
Institutions are filled with humans and all their failings.