How One Synagogue Coped

Reining in abuse Clergy sexual misconduct: What’s being done to squelch it? By EUGENE L. MEYER and RICHARD GREENBERG Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a former regional director of the Na- tional Conference of Synagogue Youth, who is now serving EW YORK (JTA) — The rabbi in a mid-sized Penn- a seven-year prison sentence for abusing teenage girls while sylvania city was eager to share his congregation’s he was principal of a New Jersey yeshiva. The scandal set Nwrenching experience — but no names, please. off a storm in the Orthodox world stemming from allegations It’s been nearly five years since the synagogue’s cantor that rabbinic leaders and others had long been negligent in pleaded guilty to sexually molesting two girls he was pre- supervising Lanner. paring for their bat mitzvahs. He was sentenced to 15 to 30 More recently, David Kaye, a prominent 56-year-old Con- months in prison and is now on Pennsylvania’s sexual of- servative rabbi from Maryland, was ensnared in a nationally fender list. televised pedophile sting operation. Kaye, the former vice Still, the rabbi wanted the name of his synagogue and of president for programs of Panim: The Institute for Jewish the abuser, whose crimes are a matter of public record, kept Leadership and Values, was sentenced Dec. 1 to 6 1/2 years in confidential. prison for trying to solicit sex last year from someone posing “We are mindful of not caus- on the Internet as a 13-year-old ing additional trauma to those boy, a case that was featured who suffered here,” he wrote in on the network television show an e-mail. The anti-abuse guidelines “Dateline NBC.” But the rabbi wanted it represent a well-intentioned yet Virtually all denominations, known that measures have been sporadically flawed attempt to except segments of fervent instituted to guard against a Orthodoxy, now have formal repeat occurrence. For example, address a problem that had once codes on the books that outline the synagogue now requires that been neglected entirely. unacceptable clergy behavior another adult be present during and mandate precisely how private religious instruction. complaints of sexual impropri- In that respect, this syna- ety are to be investigated and gogue typifies many Jewish institutions, which over the adjudicated by in-house ethics panels. past several years have adopted new policies — or beefed up In a three-month-long investigation, JTA examined those existing ones — aimed at cracking down on rogue rabbis and policies with the help of mental health providers, victims’ others in positions of trust who sexually exploit congregants, advocates, rabbis and others whose assessments reflected a students or others. mix of encouragement and skepticism. Among the findings The issue of clergy sexual abuse has gained increased at- of this six-part series: tention in the 10 years since it was first investigated by JTA. • The anti-abuse guidelines represent a well-intentioned That earlier investigation, which focused primarily on yet sporadically flawed attempt to address a problem that had rabbis who sexually coerce adult congregants, indicated that once been neglected entirely. One evaluator gave the policies the problem was more widespread than had been assumed — a C-plus grade, another a C-minus. and that the Jewish establishment was beginning to grapple • The system, according to critics, suffers from an in- with it, but not always effectively. stitutional fear of lawsuits and excessive secrecy — both For example, formal denominational policies governing byproducts of an ethical quandary faced by decision-makers. rabbinic conduct were sometimes slow to develop. Although They must balance an individual’s right to privacy against behavioral guidelines are now the norm, some other systemic the obligation to protect the public from a potential sexual problems uncovered in that earlier JTA series still persist. predator. Since that original investigation was published, the • A symbol of that ethical push-pull is the Awareness Catholic Church has been rocked by a massive pedophilia Center, a private, 5-year-old Baltimore-based Jewish organi- scandal, while the Jewish community has been buffeted by zation that is devoted to protecting the public from abusers. high-profile cases of sexual impropriety involving rabbis and The center has been both criticized and praised for its policy other authority figures. of identifying rabbis and other sexual predators on its Web The list of offenders includes Orthodox youth leader site, whether or not they have been tried in court. 1 WWW.JTA.ORG Reining in abuse • Perhaps the most serious impediment to controlling ostracized if they publicly challenge a respected, and often clergy abuse is what Chicago psychologist and psychoanalyst charismatic, communal authority figure such as a rabbi, ac- Vivian Skolnick calls “the plague of silence” — the continu- cording to Skolnick and others. ing reluctance of victims to report transgressions. “People That fear is not always illusory. As this JTA investigation are afraid of being ostracized if they come forward,” said Da- demonstrates, victims are indeed sometimes shunned and vid Framowitz, 49, who has alleged in a recently filed federal even harassed by fellow congregants. Consequently, other lawsuit that he was abused decades ago by a Brooklyn rabbi. victims fail to report transgressions. Like most of the observers contributing to the JTA analy- Despite encouraging inroads in the area of reporting sex- sis, anti-abuse activist and author Drorah Setel, a rabbi at ual abuse, the reticence of victims to come forward continues a Reform congregation in Niagara Falls, N.Y., lauded the to be a major problem across all denominations. However, an- denominational rule-makers for taking steps to undo decades ecdotal evidence suggests that underreporting may be more of inaction and denial—but she prevalent in the fervently Or- faulted their specific policies thodox community—the type nonetheless. of neighborhood where denial “They are really well-in- ‘It’s not easy for someone to runs rampant regarding clergy tentioned, but they just don’t institute an ethics complaint; it’s sexual misconduct, according to understand the process and the Framowitz. issues involved in sex abuse frightening.’ “Growing up in that frum cases,” said Setel, who has writ- Rabbi Rosalind Gold world, it was thought that things ten extensively on the topic of like this couldn’t be; it was too clergy sexual misconduct. much of a black mark on the The notion of image-con- community,” explained Framow- scious, liability-minded and often male-dominated rabbinic itz, who was raised in part in the Flatbush and Borough Park ethics boards policing their own members, she added, is like neighborhoods of Brooklyn, which are described in his law- “the fox guarding the henhouse.” suit as “tight-knit Orthodox Jewish” communities. Framowitz, who now lives in Israel, told JTA that even his Secrecy vs. privacy parents did not initially believe that he had been repeatedly sexually abused. “For several years,” he said, “nobody pro- Although Judaism’s get-tough policies may have their tected me.” flaws, conclusive proof of their effectiveness — or ineffec- When asked by JTA about that episode, Framowitz’s tiveness — is elusive. One reason is that the pool of sex abuse mother, Naomi Framowitz, said: “I was too naive to under- complaints that have been processed by ethics panels over the stand that such a thing could happen. I lived in my own little past several years is minuscule. world. At that time, it wasn’t spoken about like it is today.” It is an open question, however, whether the low volume of The denominational policies examined by JTA, which cases indicates that the problem of sexual misdeeds among were developed by both the congregational and rabbinic rabbis and other Jewish clergy is minimal, as some claim, wings of the major religious movements, have several simi- or is simply underreported, as Skolnick and several others larities. For example, they address a vast range of prohibited contend. deeds, from criminal acts such as rape and child molestation In addition, the administrative proceedings aimed at to sexually charged conduct that is exploitive but not neces- meting out justice are typically cloaked in what critics call sarily criminal. That includes sexual harassment, adultery excessive secrecy and advocates of the system maintain is an and other forms of “seductive” or coercive behavior that is environment of prudent and compassionate privacy. The de- grouped under the broad heading of “boundary violations.” nominational hearings are generally closed to the public, and In many instances, boundary violations are an outgrowth in some cases, public access to the results of those hearings of pastoral counseling that rabbis and other clergymen are is severely limited. often called on to provide for congregants who, for example, Proponents of this approach say it is warranted to avoid are grieving, undergoing religious conversion or experienc- unnecessarily tainting the reputation of the accused while ing personal problems, such as marital crises. Explicitly sparing the accuser additional shame and embarrassment. banning even sexually suggestive behavior, most of the de- “It’s not easy for someone to institute an ethics complaint; nominational guidelines recognize that the inherent power it’s frightening,” said Rabbi Rosalind Gold, chair of the eth- imbalance between clergyman and congregant makes other- ics committee of the Reform movement’s Central Conference wise consensual sexual contact unacceptable. of American Rabbis. “There are repercussions in the com- The codes of professional conduct promulgated by both munity, and people are not stupid about that.” the Conservative and Reconstructionist movements go as far Victims are typically traumatized by the fear of being as to warn of possible pitfalls that may arise when an unmar- 2 WWW.JTA.ORG Reining in abuse ried rabbi dates a congregant.

Load more