Awareness Center and other blogs draw praise and scorn
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Page Category: 2007 January
2007-01-12 |
Awareness Center and other blogs draw praise and scorn |
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By Eugene L. Meyer, Jewish Telegraphic Agency |
There is no unabridged database of rabbinic sexual abusers. But there is the Awareness Center.
It's not a physical place, but a Baltimore post office box, cellphone number and Web site -- www.theawarenesscenter.org-- where online surfers can find a listing of scores of Jewish clergyand hundreds of other Jewish officials in positions of trust orauthority who are alleged to be sexual predators. Some of them havebeen convicted of crimes; some have not even been charged or sued.
Vicki Polin, 47, is the nonprofit organization's executive director andonly full-time staffer. A licensed clinical professional counselor andan art therapist, she founded the Awareness Center in 2001, afterbecoming fed up over what she deemed to be inaction in bringingperpetrators to justice and protecting the public.
Her biggest weapon: exposure of alleged wrongdoers.
Her efforts have won her loyal supporters and harsh critics.
"Vicki's site is very valuable," said Rabbi Yosef Blau,religious adviser at Yeshiva University and a vocal advocate forvictims of rabbinic sexual abuse and other forms of sexual misconduct."Since you can't get people arrested, and there are no court cases, youhave to use a standard that's reasonable and [disclosure] works in thatcontext."
The Awareness Center's outing of alleged and confirmed abusershas inspired an army of Jewish bloggers eager to discuss the topic.Their anonymous postings appear on Web sites, such as the unorthodoxjew.com, the canonist.com, Jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and lukeford.net.
"In the Orthodox community it is much harder to be heard, so people goonline instead of going to police and the rabbi," said a woman nowliving in Israel, who reported being abused as a child by her father,an American rabbi who is principal of an Orthodox school on the Easternseaboard. "The blogs are safe for survivors."
The Awareness Center and the bloggers not only have brought thissensitive subject to the attention of a wide audience, they have alsostirred up considerable controversy over issues of fairness,attribution and transparency.
"The blogorai, as I call it, is the new way of makingirresponsible accusations," charged Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman forthe ultra-Orthodox advocacy organization, Agudath Israel. "Using a blogis a very easy and effective way of casting aspersions on people."
Blau said blogs are a mixed blessing.
"Since they are anonymous, they can say almost anything," hesaid. "On the other hand, until the community is more willing to dealwith issues, I can understand why writers won't reveal their identity."
One blog-intensive case listed on the Awareness Center siteinvolves Mordechai Tendler, a disgraced Modern Orthodox rabbi fromRockland County, N.Y., who was accused of having illicit sexualrelationships with several women who had come to him for counseling.
The charismatic scion of distinguished rabbinic scholars,Tendler ironically was known as a strong advocate for Jewish women whowere unable to obtain a get, or religious release from marriage, fromtheir husbands.
Tendler was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America(RCA) in March 2005 for "conduct inappropriate for an Orthodox rabbi."The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance praised the RCA "for taking theseissues seriously and instituting formal procedures to deal with them."Those procedures included hiring a Texas-based private investigativefirm to conduct a probe of the matter and convening an in-house ethicspanel to rule on the case.
In April, Tendler was fired from the congregation he hadhelped establish in the mid-1980s, Kehillat New Hempstead. Undaunted,he held High Holiday services this year in a public elementary schooldirectly across the street from his former shul.
Tendler, married and the father of eight, has consistentlydenied the allegations against him, but did not respond to inquiriesfrom JTA seeking comment. His attorney, Glen Feinberg, said his clientretains a large following in Rockland County. JTA asked Feinberg toencourage Tendler's supporters to contact JTA, but none did.
The scandal has spawned at least three lawsuits, including one filed byTendler against his former congregation for alleged breach of contract.That suit has been dismissed, but the ruling is being appealed. Thelitigation filed against Tendler has publicized the sort of mattersthat once would have only been whispered about in private.
For example, a lawsuit filed in December 2005 by formercongregant Adina Marmelstein alleges that Tendler, who portrayedhimself as "a counselor and adviser with expertise in women's issues,"advised Marmelstein to have sex with him so that "her life would openup and men would come to her," and she would then marry and havechildren.
The suit also claims that Tendler told Marmelstein that he "was asclose to God as anyone could get," and that he "was the Messiah." Andwhen the relationship ended, the suit contends, Tendler encouragedcongregants to "harass, threaten and intimidate" Marmelstein in anapparent attempt to discredit her accusations.
As for Tendler, his legal filings included petitions submitted in Ohioand California seeking to force the disclosure of the identities ofanonymous bloggers who had been attacking him publicly for his allegedconduct. But he withdrew both petitions.
In the California case, a judge ruled Oct. 12 that Tendlermust pay the bloggers' legal fees -- a decision that was praised byattorney Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen, who represented three of thebloggers involved in the case.
"The right to criticize anonymously on the Internet is afundamental free-speech right and an important tool for whistle-blowersand consumers who speak out about the misconduct or corruption of bigcompanies or public figures," Levy said in a press release.
A letter from Tendler to the judge who had ruled in the California casewas posted Nov. 15 on a victims' advocacy blog. In the letter, Tendlerasked the judge to reconsider his decision on attorney's fees, adding:"I have been the subject of a concerted and constant Internet campaignto destroy my reputation, livelihood and family. Disgusting allegationsof sexual impropriety, all of them false, have been circulated about meand amplified in such horrific proportions as only can happen on theInternet. These allegations and threats have, in fact, destroyed myreputation as a rabbi and teacher and have caused me hundreds ofthousands, if not millions, of dollars in actual and future damages."
The letter described the bloggers as being "like poisonoussnakes" who "want to continue to do their damage and spread theirfilthy vicious lies with no accountability."
The Awareness Center, also known as the Jewish CoalitionAgainst Sexual Abuse/Assault, has its own confidentiality policyregarding victims of sexual misconduct and others."As a victim advocate, I never name the survivors," Polin said.
The Awareness Center no longer names its board members,either, "due to harassment," according to Polin, who said she herselfhas been threatened repeatedly with physical harm and once was spat onby a woman who was angry over an Awareness Center disclosure.
In 2003, Polin said, a supporter of an alleged abuser named on her sitedid background checks on her advisory board members, "found somethingabout them or someone they cared about and threatened to make itpublic." Half a dozen resignations ensued, she said.
Among those who were formerly listed but resigned for other reasons isRabbi Mark Dratch, who chairs the Rabbinical Council of America's TaskForce on Rabbinic Improprieties and has founded Jsafe, an organizationto deal with sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
Dratch said he left the Awareness Center board in"disagreement with [Polin] on the standards required for publishing onher Web site. I wasn't satisfied with the threshold of verification.There are people who've been victimized, and others who've been subjectto false reports also being victimized. The big problem we have in thisarea is verifying the allegations and moving forward."
As of early December, the Awareness Center site still listed236 "supportive rabbis." Polin said more than 500 people receive here-mail alerts, and the Web page averages around 35,000 visitors permonth.
One of the e-mail recipients is Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executivevice president of the Orthodox Union and a trained psychologist.
"I read everything with a grain of salt," he said. "On the other hand,[the Awareness Center and the blogs] have served the purpose of keepingthis in the public spotlight and keeping the pressure on establishedinstitutions to police their constituencies."
As of late December, the Awareness Center was in danger ofclosing for lack of funds, according to Polin, who was seekingdonations to keep the organization afloat.
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