Educator, Feminist Activist Highlights Child Abuse in Orthodox Jewish Community

Dr. Elana Sztokman, an educator, sociologist and activist, recently emphasized the prevalence of child abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community. The Jewish Chronicle Online reports that Sztokman recently spoke at a session at the Limmud conference in Birmingham, stating that the Jewish community has a “rampant epidemic” of rabbis who commit sexual abuse. Dr. Sztokman frequently focuses on the topic of Orthodox Jewish feminism.

She said, “We have a epidemic of abuse and it is rampant in the Jewish community,” according to the The Jewish Chronicle. “A disproportionate number of abusers seem to be rabbis or quasi rabbis.”

In July, a Jewish teacher and son of a rabbi was sentenced to 13 years of jail for molesting two teenage girls. The judge who sentenced him, Mr. Justice Timothy Holroyde, called Todros Grynhaus “an utter hypocrite” for “cynically condemning his victims to suffer” while proclaiming his religion. ““I have no doubt that you felt able to rely on a prevailing attitude of insularity which you hoped would prevent these allegations from ever coming to the attention of the police. You hoped that, at worse, you might have to pay a form of financial penalty as directed at the Beth Din.” the judge said, according to The Jewish Chronicle.

According to Sztokman, who is a former executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, cases such as Grynhaus’ are all too common. At the conference, she discussed reasons why abusers are often never punished for their actions; victims are frequently ostracized. “We have seen it time and time again a victim comes forward and the community shuns them. Their lives are made impossible, kosher shops ban them, people in shul push past them and their families. And people come out in defence of the abuser.”

“This pattern of behaviour needs to change and as a community it needs to be challenged.” she said.

Abusers are “too often” shielded by community leaders and peers, Sztokman said. “People don’t like to think of their charismatic rabbi as an abuser or capable of such acts. They come out in defence of them and say ‘oh I only know him to be nice’ But what they are doing is silencing victims.”

Additionally, victims are often dissuaded from reporting the abuse, Sztokman said. She pointed out that rabbis encourage victims to seek them out before going to the police. “How can a victim who is being abused by a rabbi then go to a rabbi to report it?” she said. “People at the top in the Orthodox community tend to be male and it makes it hard for female victims to come forward or have an even playing field. Victims are dismissed and not believed. If you come forward against a abusive rabbi you will loose.”

from Parker Waichman http://www.yourlawyer.com/blog/educator-feminist-activist-highlights-child-abuse-in-orthodox-jewish-community/