Orthodox Opposition to No-Names Policy
Charles Hynes Image by getty images
Paul Berger April 25, 2012
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes can usually count on the firm support of the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel of America.
While Hynes has been lambasted over the years by child abuse survivors and their advocates for his handling of sex abuse cases, Agudath has generally backed what it sees as his sensitive handling of abuse cases in the community.
Not this week.
The Forward asked Agudath what it made of the D.A.’s blanket refusal to name 85 Orthodox Jews charged with sex crimes.
The D.A.’s office denied the Forward’s Freedom of Information Law request by claiming that all Orthodox Jewish sex abuse suspects should have their identities protected because of the community’s “tight-knit and insular” nature.
Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudath’s executive vice president and a legal expert, defended the D.A.’s right to evaluate whether to release the names of offenders on a case-by-case basis, according to Agudath spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran.
Such an evaluation could take into account whether naming the suspect might allow the victim to be identified. But a blanket policy of withholding names of perpetrators should not be “across the board” in any community, he said.
Meanwhile, some of the most prominent advocates for child-sex abuse victims criticized Hynes for his remarkable claim that Orthodox Jews accused of child sex crimes should enjoy a blanket protection from being identified.
The head of a group named in honor of Megan Kanka, the New Jersey girl whose 1994 murder inspired the passage of the eponymous laws mandating community notification about sex offenders, said the policy would leave children “more vulnerable.”
Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was abducted and murdered from the family’s home in Petaluma, Calif., cut to the heart of the matter.
“The public has the right to know,” he told the Forward.
Now that the largest umbrella group for ultra-Orthodoxy also says it does not agree with Hynes, one has to wonder: Who does?
Contact Paul Berger at berger@forward.com or on Twitter @pdberger
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
