UNITED STATES
Emes Ve-Emunah
Everything you ever wanted to know about abuse in the Chasidic world is in Newsweek. In what has to be the most comprehensive story ever published in the non Jewish media, Newsweek discusses cases of physical abuse and mostly sex abuse where survivors were victims of rabbis, teachers and others.
While the article focuses on Chabad, they are not alone in how poorly abuse has been dealt with. It is not limited to Chabad or other Chasidim. It happens in similar ways in the non Chasidic world of Yeshivos too. Modern Orthodoxy is not exempt from this either.
In all cases, there have been attempts to cover up sex abuse at the expense of the victims. Some more egregious than others but cover-ups at one level or another seems to be a universal response by religious institutions of any hashkafa (or any religion – as the move ‘Spotlight’ showed about the Catholic Church for example). Religious institutions simply do not want to damage their reputations. After all, they represent God. That there was sex abuse going on at their religious institutions is the antithesis of being Godly.
The problem with that of course is that keeping things like this quiet ends up increasing the frequency of its occurrence. Abusers don’t get punished and are merely kicked out of the institution and maybe the city they were caught doing it – only to find another one to do it, where nobody knows who they are or what they did.
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.