UNITED STATES
Jewish Press
By: Dr. Michael J. Salamon
March 3 marked a turning point. On that day, Newsweek magazine published an article titled Child Abuse Allegations Plague the Hasidic community. (True, there have been other articles in major media outlets about abuse in Orthodox communities but this is the first time the problem was broadly tackled in a major, full-length, comprehensive, well-researched piece in a publication not geared exclusively toward a Jewish readership.)
We can argue about whether the article is a damning indictment of blind obedience or whether or not the root problem is a determination to protect the reputations of institutions and their leaders while ignoring the needs of individuals.
We can debate whether or not those who spoke to Newsweek transgressed the alleged sin of mesirah, a sin that likely does not apply in our day, or worse, that they are all liars with their own sinister agendas.
And we can even worry that the article may cause irreparable harm to our community by casting us in a bad light and thereby providing fodder for anti-Semitism.
I would disagree with most of those presumptions.
I believe the Newsweek article actually improves our standing because it forces us to be more open and honest about the scourge of abuse. It shines a very bright light on a problem that some still want to sweep under the rug. And it destroys the delusions of those who continue to believe that Orthodox Jews do not abuse. Most important, it gives us an opportunity to show we can make a commitment to clean things up.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.