I am a non-partisan critic of Jewish organizations. I will go after any group that enables child abuse. In my last post I revealed Satmar’s sad history in the case of Yisroel Moshe (Israel) Weingarten. Today I want to talk about Agudath Israel of America. They think of themselves as the voice of torah-true Jewry. Yet they are guilty of collusion with the ongoing epidemic of sexual abuse of children by frum Jews. They can hurl thunderbolts to confront a modern orthodox rabbi who ordains one woman. They can mobilize their masses for rachmonis on Martin Grossman, a vicious Jewish murderer. But suddenly they loose their oomph and speak bikol dmamah dakah when it comes to child molesting (unless of course the offender is a goy).
After being confronted by protesters two years ago at their convention they made noises about their willingness to confront the issue. A year ago, their lay leader, Rabbi Dovid Zweibel, Esq. used their convention to speak with passion about their dawning realization about the problem and their commitment to find a way to respond. This year they unveiled their response. It took the form of high profile speech by the head of their Moetzes, the Novominsker Rebbe (Rabbi Yaakov Perlow). At their annual convention over Thanksgiving weekend, Rabbi Perlow devoted over 12 minutes to the issue. Below are his words, followed by my reactions.
From Frum Follies, here.
