This is the Forward’s coverage of sexual violence, including harassment, rape, abuse, and other forms.
Sexual Violence
The Latest
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News Would-Be Jewish Camp Molesters Get Video Warning — But What About Police?
It’s billed as “a friendly message to camp summer staff.” But the six-minute video, targeting Orthodox summer camps, is far from amicable. “This is your first and final warning,” Meyer Seewald threatens camp counselors. “If you touch a child even once you have destroyed him for the rest of his life.” “We will make sure…
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Fast Forward Chabad Rabbi Sorry for Suggesting Australian Boys Agreed to Sex Abuse
The Chabad rabbi at the center of a scandal surrounding his views on allegations of child sex abuse in Sydney two decades ago has apologized. Rabbi Baruch Lesches, who now runs the Lubavitch community in Monsey, N.Y., issued a statement Monday saying he “deeply regretted” comments attributed to him in news reports Sunday and stressed…
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Fast Forward Chabad Rabbi Suggests Australian Child Victims Agreed to Sex Abuse
A former senior Chabad leader in Sydney suggested that some of the Jewish victims of alleged child sex abuse in Australia may have consented. Rabbi Boruch Lesches, who now heads the Lubavitch community in Monsey, N.Y., was a top leader at the Sydney Chabad for 20 years starting in the mid-1980s. In recordings of a…
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Fast Forward ‘Girls Enjoy Rape’ Judge Loses Backing in Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday withdrew his support of Judge Emeritus Nissim Yeshaya for the presidency of the Likud party’s court, over a comment he had made earlier this week that some women “enjoy rape.” Netanyahu made the decision after Army Radio revealed the comment in a report Wednesday morning. Yeshaya, a former district…
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Opinion Horace Mann Says Sorry — and Stumbles
Horace Mann alumni like me got emails in our in-boxes a few days ago and soon thereafter, the news was splashed everywhere: our alma mater had officially apologized. The school apologized for the many instances of child abuse, sexual assault and worse that journalists have revealed as occurring in its classrooms, hallways and teacher’s homes….
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Fast Forward Chicago Chabad Rabbi Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 15-Year-Old Boy
Chicago Rabbi Larry Dudovitz was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2006. Dudovitz, 45, was arrested Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reported, and is being held on $100,000 bail. Dudovitz, who is also known by his Hebrew name Aryeh, is a follower of the late Chabad leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and…
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Life A Week in Rape Culture
Teens arrested posting a gang-rape video to the web. A prominent sports figure tweeting the name and contact information of his rape accuser. Military officials videotaping female cadets in the shower without their consent. All of these stories broke within days of each other during this last dismal week, inundating us with depressing headlines. In…
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Life Cleveland Kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart and Us
Sexual assault cases don’t occur in a vacuum, even when they are so egregious that they defy the imagination. For example: the recent Cleveland story involving the long-term imprisonment and rape of three local women by an alleged perpetrator who comes across as a complete sadist. Coverage of this story has been rife with speculation,…
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Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
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Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
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