The principal of a prominent all-girls’ yeshiva in Brooklyn promised change after the school was rattled by an allegation of sexual misconduct by students against a long-time employee in May. But in a letter sent to parents and in a phone interview with the Forward, the school’s longtime principal denied that any misconduct actually took…
When Dr. Shira Berkovits worked as a consultant for the Orthodox Union, among other Jewish organizations, in synagogue youth programming, she was asked to give presentations that trained synagogue staff members in keeping children safe from abuse. “I thought I was going to do it for one year and walk away,” she says. Yet when…
When a Reform rabbi resigned from his Durham, North Carolina synagogue recently, the synagogue’s lawyer said the problem was “sexual in nature.” Now the Forward has learned what those words meant. The rabbi had a yearlong, sexual relationship with a woman who regularly worshipped at the synagogue. The Reform movement’s rabbinical association had censured him…
The Reform movement’s rabbinical association censured the rabbi of a Durham, North Carolina synagogue after receiving a complaint that was “sexual in nature,” but didn’t tell his congregation, spurring a watchdog group to demand that the movement be more forthcoming about accusations of sexual wrongdoing against its clergy. “It’s kind of shocking,” said Shulamit Magnus,…
What is the biggest criticism of #MeToo, the social movement that has swept America since the Harvey Weinstein revelations in 2017, encouraging women to speak out about their experiences with sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct? Not enough due process. Of course, all of us would rather be tried by a judge and a jury than…
If millennials are spoiled in part because they were given too many participation trophies, then boomers are leading us into complete social collapse because they want awards for denouncing a child rapist a mere 41 years after he admitted to rape. Get the justice league over at the Motion Picture Academy Association a couple of…
The principal of an elite ultra-Orthodox girls’ school is defending himself against accusations from a politician and community members that he’s ignored years of complaints about sexual misconduct. The controversy’s catalyst was the release late last week, through a popular messaging app, of a recording that relates one student’s tale of an unwanted kiss from…
The Talmud is like that friend of yours who has something to say about everything, and everything to say about sex. It’s a sizable text (the Steinsaltz Bavli Talmud, for example, is 29 volumes in total) that acts like a great, organically growing comments section — a literary Jewish reddit spanning hundreds of years, written…
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