The Uphill Battle To Expose Pedophiles

The Uphill Battle To Expose Haredi

Haredi kids eyes covered croppedThe Brooklyn DA allows predators to make sweetheart plea deals that keep them out of prison and off sex offender registries. Haredi rabbis demand to be the gatekeepers who decide which, if any, allegations of pedophilia are reported to police. And while child sex abuse scandals at Penn State and in the Catholic Church get extensive media coverage, the rape of haredi children is almost completely absent from America's media of record – especially from the New York Times.

Haredi kids eyes covered cropped

Ben Hirsch of Survivors for Justice writes in The Jewish Week [emphasis added]:

…Orthodox victims agonize over the lack of attention given this problem by mainstream media and government, particularly compared to the Catholic abuse scandal and, now, the situation at Penn State. While Jewish newspapers such as The Jewish Week, and blogs, have done hundreds of stories on this issue, the same cannot be said for the mainstream media. In five years The New York Times has published two stories; Orthodox Jewish children are being raped in the paper’s backyard but it appears that this is news not fit to print.javascript:doSmilie(':s226:');

What happened at Penn State has hit us hard; respected figures behaved egregiously. But once the story broke, people were held accountable. This could not have happened without extensive mainstream media coverage.

Left to its own devices, the ultra-Orthodox leadership will continue covering up child molestation and harshly enforcing its version of “omerta.” In the name of “cultural sensitivity,” the Brooklyn DA will allow predators to devastate more lives.javascript:doSmilie(':s226:');

While we work to empower Orthodox children and families, we also need the national media to shine a brighter light on this problem, and we need state legislatures, attorneys general and the federal government to strengthen and enforce the laws designed to protect our most vulnerable.…javascript:doSmilie(':1dunno1:');

[link to failedmessiah.typepad.com]