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Awareness Center a clearinghouse of concern - and controversy
Article created 19 January 2007
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http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=6566&TM=33814.91
Awareness Center a clearinghouseof concern - and controversy
by Eugene L. Meyer and Richard GreenbergJTA News and FeaturesNEW YORK - There is no unabridged database of rabbinic sexual abusers. But there is the Awareness Center.
It'snot a physical place, but a Baltimore post-office box, cell-phonenumber and Web site - www.theawarenesscenter.org - where online surferscan find a listing of scores of Jewish clergy and hundreds of otherJewish officials in positions of trust or authority who are alleged tobe sexual predators. Some of them have been convicted of crimes; somehave not even been charged or sued.
Vicki Polin, 47, is thenonprofit organization's executive director and only full-time staffer.A licensed clinical professional counselor and an art therapist, shefounded the Awareness Center in 2001 after becoming fed up over whatshe deemed to be inaction in bringing perpetrators to justice andprotecting the public.
Her biggest weapon: exposure of alleged wrongdoers.
Her efforts have won her loyal supporters and harsh critics.
"Vicki'ssite is very valuable," said Rabbi Yosef Blau, religious adviser atYeshiva University and a vocal advocate for victims of rabbinic sexualabuse and other forms of sexual misconduct. "Since you can't get peoplearrested and there are no court cases, you have to use a standardthat's reasonable and [disclosure] works in that context."
TheAwareness Center's outing of alleged and confirmed abusers has inspiredan army of Jewish bloggers eager to discuss the topic, with anonymouspostings appearing on Web sites such as the Unorthodox Jew, theCanonist, Jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com and Lukeford.net.
"Inthe 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, anAmerican rabbi who is principal of an Orthodox school on the Easternseaboard. "The blogs are safe for survivors."
The AwarenessCenter and the bloggers not only have brought this sensitive subject tothe attention of a wide audience, they have also stirred upconsiderable controversy over issues of fairness, attribution andtransparency.
"The blogorai, as I call it, is the new way ofmaking irresponsible accusations," charged Rabbi Avi Shafran,spokesperson for the fervently Orthodox advocacy organization AgudathIsrael. "Using a blog is a very easy and effective way of castingaspersions on people."
Blau said blogs are a mixed blessing.
"Sincethey are anonymous, they can say almost anything," he said. "On theother hand, until the community is more willing to deal with issues, Ican understand why writers won't reveal their identity."
Oneblog-intensive case listed on the Awareness Center site involvesMordechai Tendler, a disgraced modern Orthodox rabbi from RocklandCounty, New York, who was accused of having illicit sexualrelationships with several women who had come to him for counsel.
Thecharismatic scion of distinguished rabbinic scholars, Tendlerironically was known as a strong advocate for Jewish women who wereunable to obtain a get, or religious release from marriage, from theirhusbands.
Tendler was expelled from the Rabbinical Council ofAmerica in March 2005 for "conduct inappropriate for an Orthodoxrabbi." The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance praised the RCA "fortaking these issues seriously and instituting formal procedures to dealwith them." Those procedures included hiring a Texas-based privateinvestigative firm to conduct a probe of the matter and convening anin-house ethics panel to rule on the case.
In April, Tendler wasfired from the congregation he had helped establish in the mid-1980s,Kehillat New Hempstead. Undaunted, he held High Holiday services thisyear in a public elementary school directly across the street from hisformer shul.
Tendler, married and the father of eight, hasconsistently denied the allegations against him, but did not respond toinquiries 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.
Thescandal 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.
Forexample, a lawsuit filed in December 2005 by former congregant AdinaMarmelstein states that Tendler, who portrayed himself as "a counselorand advisor with expertise in women's issues," advised Marmelstein tohave sex with him so that "her life would open up and men would come toher," and she would then marry and have children.
The suit alsoclaims that Tendler told Marmelstein that he "was as close to God asanyone could get" and that he "was the Messiah." And when therelationship ended, the suit contends, Tendler encouraged congregantsto "harass, threaten and intimidate" Marmelstein in an apparent attemptto discredit her accusations.
As for Tendler, his legal filingsincluded petitions submitted in Ohio and California seeking to forcethe disclosure of the identities of anonymous bloggers who had beenattacking him publicly for his alleged conduct. But he withdrew bothpetitions.
In the California case, a judge ruled Oct. 12 thatTendler must pay the bloggers' legal fees - a decision that was praisedby attorney Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen, who represented three ofthe bloggers involved in the case.
"The right to criticizeanonymously on the Internet is a fundamental free-speech right and animportant tool for whistle-blowers and consumers who speak out aboutthe misconduct or corruption of big companies or public figures," Levysaid in a press release.
A letter from Tendler to the judge whohad ruled in the California case was posted Nov. 15 on a victims'advocacy blog. In the letter, Tendler asked the judge to reconsider hisdecision on attorney's fees, adding: "I have been the subject of aconcerted and constant Internet campaign to destroy my reputation,livelihood, and family. Disgusting allegations of sexual impropriety,all of them false, have been circulated about me and amplified in suchhorrific proportions as only can happen on the Internet. Theseallegations and threats have, in fact, destroyed my reputation as arabbi and teacher and have caused me hundreds of thousands, if notmillions of dollars in actual and future damages."
The letterdescribed the bloggers as being "like poisonous snakes" who "want tocontinue to do their damage and spread their filthy vicious lies withno accountability."
The Awareness Center, also known as theJewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, has its ownconfidentiality policy regarding victims of sexual misconduct andothers.
"As a victim advocate, I never name the survivors," Polin said.
TheAwareness Center no longer names its board members, either, "due toharassment," according to Polin, who said she herself has beenthreatened repeatedly with physical harm and once was spat on by awoman who was angry over an Awareness Center disclosure.
In2003, 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 thosewho were formerly listed but resigned for other reasons is Rabbi MarkDratch, who chairs the Rabbinical Council of America's Task Force onRabbinic Improprieties and has founded the organization JSafe to dealwith sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
Dratch said he leftthe Awareness Center board in "disagreement with [Polin] on thestandards required for publishing on her Web site. I wasn't satisfiedwith the threshold of verification. There are people who've beenvictimized and others who've been subject to false reports also beingvictimized. The big problem we have in this area is verifying theallegations and moving forward."
As of early December, theAwareness Center site still listed 236 "supportive rabbis." Polin saidmore than 500 people receive her e-mail alerts, and the Web pageaverages around 35,000 visitors per month.
One of the e-mailrecipients is Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of theOrthodox Union and a trained psychologist.
"I read everythingwith a grain of salt," he said. "On the other hand," Weinreb said, theAwareness Center and the blogs "have served the purpose of keeping thisin the public spotlight and keeping the pressure on establishedinstitutions to police their constituencies."
As of lateDecember, the Awareness Center was in danger of closing for lack offunds, according to Polin, who was seeking donations to keep theorganization afloat.
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