On the right-wing Haredi news site Vos Iz Neias, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz takes the Orthodox world to task on the subject of child molesters in their ranks…and on the silent complicity from Orthodox communities that often allows the abuse to continue.
And he addresses it both more passionately and more efficiently than the constant tirade coming from the non-Orthodox blogworld about it:
Shame on us, for allowing people like Avrohom Mondrowitz, and others like him, to live peacefully in our communities while their victims live tortured lives. Please excuse my sarcasm, but lately, when people ask me what they ought to be doing to rally support in their communities to keep our children safe from predators, I occasionally tell them, tongue-in-cheek, that it might be a good idea to spread rumors that the pedophiles are distributing non-kosher candy to their children while molesting them. Who knows; maybe that might get people to take notice.
According to Rabbi Horowitz, he’s been writing about the subject for four years. The fact is, most of the people who scream about Haredi abuses and wrongdoings are being published in places where nobody in the insular Haredi world will read about them, and it won’t change anything. But activism like this — a real Monsey rabbi telling others in his community that we need to be aware — is exactly the sort of thing that brings about change.
