כל מקום שיש בו חלול ה’ אין חולקין כבוד לרב – שבועות ל:ב
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the active leader of the Israeli Litvish yeshivish world, would have the torah community believe that they can deal with abuse while keeping it all away from publicity. Since they pretty much control their own media and block outside media, the threat is the secular media, protective services, and the cops. Hence their many warnings about not reporting without the approval of rabbis and not going to secular reporters.
Charedim Can’t and Won’t Internally Control Abuse
But going to Haredi rabbonim and dayanim does not work. Most rabbonim and dayanim prevent significant action against frum abusers. The only reason Walder lost his reputation and faced prosecution is because Haaretz, a left of center secular newspaper, presented the accounts of 3 women who were abused by Walder. This led Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu to form an ad hoc beit din that took testimony. Rabbis Yehuda Silman and Sariel Rosenberg, major poskim in Benei Brak, called for his books not to be read. Even that would not have done the trick of persuading Walder to turn himself in as a serial child rapist if Rabbi Eliyahu had not publicly disclosed his findings. And Eichlers Judaica, a major Boro Park seforim store, announced it was not going to sell them. Other major outlets followed and his publisher, Feldheim, fell in line. It was no longer possible to ignore his disappearance because kids wanted to know why they had to give up books they liked. So what started with chiloni “shaming” snowballed into a crisis because the charedi leadership isn’t used to having to admit abusers in their own ranks let alone having to come up with explanations for kids who don’t always just roll with subtle cues to shut up.
For the leadership this is a crisis of reputation. But for victims and survivors this pales beside the long standing disaster of cover ups. Is there any way to fix it without shaming such low lifes?
The Haredi system had 25 years in which to solve the Walder problem internally, but didn’t, as they usually don’t. Based on many reports from victims I can tell you what usually happens when victims go to rabbis. Sometimes they are shamed and blamed for the abuse as if they “wanted it” or at least behaved in ways that invited the abuse which is painted as consensual. Sometimes they are just not believed and lambasted for false accusations.
Even when the rav is sympathetic to the victim
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FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin 