moving forward from Chaim Walder to supporting victims

Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky wrote a fabulous article in Mishpacha about the Chaim Walder case. It is actually less about Chaim Walder and more about what we as a community must do to improve our response to such situations and to support the victims.

Rabbi Lopiansky talks about hos badly the victims suffer and the difficulty they have in speaking up because of the community reaction and support for the person who perpetrated the violence and abuse. Rabbi Lopiansky says we have to stop looking at such incidents as a crime or aveirah, rather as retzicha - murder, taking into account what it does to the victims.

Almost the entire article is gold. My only comment is his proposed solution. Rabbi Lopiansky's solution is to create a forum. A well-respected forum of people form the community that will seemingly investigate any such claims and determine if they are serious or the work of a disgruntled student or parent or whatnot. Such a forum would require standing and public respect, along with training and access to experts and access to leverage.

That might be a good start, considering the realities. The realities being so many rabbis not willing to say "go to the authorities" when a congregant comes forward with a question about what to do. The reality of people asking a rabbi before going to the police. 

The real problem is that this is all part of the problem. These forums are mostly useless. They are useless because they have no actual authority and because they have no ability or expertise to properly investigate these matters and make a determination, let alone to impose some sort of punishment and enforce it upon determination of guilt. These forums are really just a way of keeping things within the ghetto, more often than not keeping it quiet, with the perpetrator free to leave town and move on to victims in another place with no actual deterrent.

As a start, it might be the beginning of change, but the forums and batei din are not the answer. Giving them the power and authority and ability is nothing but a pipe dream and is not realistic. They have no real way to enforce anything and there will always be another rav or dayan or community leader that will reject what this forum concluded, leaving the community divided as it is now. With Eli Pelay's addition of creating some sort of network so that people can't just move around to a new community and start again, it could be the beginning of change. A registry of molesters and pedophiles is necessary but it cant be run and administered by an internal forum or beis din. it has to be run by the State and courts, or else in the end nothing will have changed.

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