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Victims of child sex abuse face ostracism, inquiry told
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse hears evidence from Jewish campaigner
May 12, 2020 16:02
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse hears evidence from Jewish campaigner
May 12, 2020 16:02'Utter hypocrite' Todros Grynhaus jailed for 13 years for sex assaultsVictims of child sexual abuse face being ostracised by the Jewish community if they report it to the secular authorities, a public inquiry has been told.
In contrast, perpetrators sent to jail could be welcomed back into the community as “if nothing has happened”.
Yehudis Goldsobel, founder of Migdal Emunah, a support group for victims of child sexual abuse, called for an independent service to be set up to handle complaints within the Jewish community and for the external regulation of religious organisations for safeguarding.
Ms Goldsobel, herself the victim of a sexual assault as a child, was giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which resumed its hearings into religious organisations on Monday by video.
“If you have reported, you are ostracised,” she said.
Asked whether this applied across the Jewish community, she said she did not know about the Progressive part but “it’s most certainly within the Orthodox side”.
Convicted sex offenders, however, could be “accepted back into regular life as if nothing has happened. In fact, as heroes.” They would “still be welcomed as part of the synagogue service, they will still receive honours”.
Migdal Emunah dealt with 50 families a year on average, the majority Orthodox with a “high number” from the Charedi community, she said.
She was critical of organisations that advised victims to consult rabbis before going to the authorities, warning that the aim of some rabbis was to “protect” the community rather than the victim.
One rabbi had told a girl, “Well, you are over the age of 12”, explaining that according to Jewish law this was the age a girl becomes an adult.
Some rabbis, she said, felt “if the alleged offender would pay for therapy for the victim, then that's a really, in their eyes, effective way of dealing with the situation”.
Calling for “a unified approach” in the Jewish community, she said, “We do not need a multitude of helplines. We need one helpline with trained, independent professionals on the end of the phone.”
Relationships and sex education in schools should be compulsory, she said, explaining that most Charedi children knew nothing about sex.
“I would also like to see mandatory safeguarding training for anybody that's in contact with children,” she said.
She referred the inquiry to the case of Todros Grynhaus, jailed in 2015 for 13 years and two months for sexual offences against two Orthodox girls under the age of 16.
In his remarks at the time, the sentencing judge said the girls had been “additionally vulnerable because they had been brought up in the Charedi community and had therefore been insulated against any form of sex education”.
Grynhaus, the judge said, had admitted his offences to two rabbis in 2011 but “felt able to rely on a prevailing attitude of insularity” within his community which he had hoped would prevent the allegations coming to the attention of the police. The worst, he hoped, would be having to pay a financial penalty as directed by a Beth Din.
In her accompanying witness statement, Ms Goldsobel also cited the instance of a man who said he had been groomed and sexually abused as a teenager by an older woman in the Chasidic community.
The woman controlled him with money, the statement said.
When the man got married, his young wife came back from work one day to find her husband in bed and the older woman in their bedroom “putting her clothes back on”.
The couple split up and the wife told others of the older woman’s behaviour. But she said she was forced by Rabbi Shulem Friedman of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations to retract her allegations against the older woman otherwise she would not receive her get. In return for signing the retraction, she received £10,000.
But Ms Goldsobel praised Stanmore United Synagogue which some years ago banned a former barmitzvah tutor convicted of sex offences from the premises after holding a vote of members.
The inquiry also heard evidence of safeguarding practices within the Jewish community from Shelley Marsh, director of Reshet, the Jewish Leadership Council’s youth network.
