Sex abuse issue emerging in Orthodox Jewish community
MONTREAL — A rabbinical court has brought the long-hidden issue of sexual abuse in Montreal’s Orthodox Jewish community out into the open.
The debate unfolded as New York was rocked last week by the horrific killing of eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn, abducted as he walked home from a Jewish day camp.
Media reports have suggested that members of the close-knit Hasidic community kept a list of alleged child molesters that it had not turned over to police.
On Tuesday, the Rabbinical Council of America stated that those with reasonable suspicion or first-hand knowledge of abuse or endangerment have a religious obligation to report that abuse to the secular legal authorities without delay.
“False accusations are harmful to those falsely accused — but unreported abuse or endangerment can be life-threatening, as we have recently been tragically reminded,” the council said in a statement.
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/07/26/sex-abuse-issue-emerging-in-orthodox-jewish-community/