The Awareness Center is The Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA)
Case of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner
Rosh Yeshiva - Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva - Old City of Jerusalem
Rabbi of Beit El, Israel
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner is the author of over thirty books on Jewish Law, Philosophy, and Biblical commentary. He is regularly featured in many newspapers and magazines, commenting on current events and topics of Jewish interest. Having formerly served as the spiritual leader of Kibbutz Lavi in the Galil, Rabbi Aviner is currently Rosh Yeshiva of Ateret Kohanim in the Old City of Jerusalem and Rabbi of Beit El. With a profound understanding of traditional Jewish values, the author continues in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, of blessed memory.
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When A Family Member Molests: Reality, Conflict, and The Need For Support
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Rosh Hayeshiva and Chairman of the Board
http://ateret.org.il/new/yeshiva.php?id=166
Considered one of the leading ideologues of the national camp
in Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner was born in 1943 in German Occupied Lyon,
France. There he was active in Bnei Akiva, the religious Zionist youth movement,
eventually assuming the role of national director. Rabbi Aviner holds a M.A.
in Mathematics and is an Electrical Engineer by profession.
Following his aliya to Israel, he studied at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav where he was one of the "Talmedi Muvhak" of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Avraham Yitzchak Kook. Rabbi Aviner served previously as spiritual leader of Kibbutz Lavi in the Galil and Moshav Keshet on the Golan Heights. He is also a Reserve Lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces.
Rabbi Aviner has hundreds of published works to his credit, including the famed "Sichot Harav Tzvi Yehuda" and "Tal Hermon" on the weekly Torah portion. He has written on a broad range of topics and his lectures in person and on tape reach a wide and diverse audience. He has columns that appear weekly in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, and in the Machon Meir weekly newsletter "BeAhava U'Bemuna". Rabbi Aviner also has a regular radio show with Arutz Sheva.
Rabbi Aviner's advice is saught by people from all walks of life ranging from troubled youth and young couples to Prime Ministers and heads of the Security Establishment.
Today, Rabbi Aviner serves as the Rav of Beit El and as Rosh Yeshiva of Ateret Cohanim Institutions.
By Zev Stub
The Jerusalem Post - March 21, 2003, Friday (BOOKS; Pg. 12B_
Moadim Lesimcha: Explorations Into The Jewish Holidays by Shlomo Aviner.
Urim Publications. 208 pp. $ 22
Perhaps the most important legacy of the first chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, is his philosophy as expressed in his writings.
The Rav, as he is known in certain circles, put special emphasis on a vision of unity which values every Jew as part of a national whole, and provides a practical framework for nurturing unconditional love of all Jews. He held a messianic view of Eretz Yisrael, seeing its resettlement as the beginning of the Redemption. After the Rav's death, his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook continued his teachings as the spiritual leader of one of the most controversial and misunderstood of Israel's religious camps, the Gush Emunim movement. Established after the Six Day War expanded Israel's borders to the Jordan, it saw the resettling of Eretz Yisrael Hashlema (the whole Land of Israel) as the key to reaching the Messianic era.
Today, perhaps the most outspoken and influential of the camp's many colorful leaders is Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the rosh yeshiva of Ateret Kohanim, the Chief Rabbi of Beit El, and the bestselling author of more than 50 works on Jewish topics.
Unfortunately, his works have been largely inaccessible to English speakers here and abroad because he writes exclusively in Hebrew.
This is a pity, because the philosophy of both Rav Kooks has proved critical in shaping Israel's political map in the past 35-odd years, and has influenced Israelis across the spectrum with its powerful spiritual and nationalistic messages.
Moadim Lesimcha: Explorations Into The Jewish Holidays is a step toward fixing that problem. A collection of translated articles from Aviner's popular Hebrew book, Tal Hermon, it delves into the deep spiritual significance of each festival, through the window of Kook's thought.
Thus, for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, he addresses the concept of repentance as the basis of the universe; for Succot, he analyzes the relationship between the material and the spiritual; for Hanukka, he differentiates between miracles and faith, and so on.
For a change of pace, Aviner deals with issues of faith resulting from the Holocaust.
When it comes to Purim, Aviner paints a broad view of history, connecting ancient Shushan with the end of days in "The Days of Purim Will Never Be Nullified." In "The Mitzva to Drink," he shows that drinking, done in a holy context, can reveal our hidden strengths. And in "Kneeling Saps our Strength," he describes the necessity of Jewish pride as the source of our nation's vigor.
Aviner sums up Mordechai's defiance of Haman by saying, "To all generations of Jews, the message is clear: We must be strong and proud and not capitulate out of weakness and lack of self-confidence."
True to his Zionist roots, Aviner includes sections about the "holidays" of Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. In these, he lays out the background for his nationalist views, as he describes "The Process of Redemption" and "The Mitzva of Eretz Yisrael."
In the former, he writes: "It is clear that the establishment of an independent State of Israel is part of the messianic process foretold by our prophets.
"Obviously, the establishment of the State is not the fulfillment of everything that our prophets promised; it is only part of the redemption...
Only at a later stage will we achieve internal freedom..."
While he is known for his hard line on certain issues, Aviner displays awealth of compassion, humor, and common sense. In his guide to Pessah cleaning, he writes:
"It shouldn't take more than a day to clean the whole house, including the kitchen. Anything more than that is a stringency. If we are not capable of dealing with the extra workload we decide to take on, we deplete our energy and take out our exhaustion on our families.
"Not only is there increased tension between husband and wife, but we show our children a very negative example by shouting at them... The husband and children are trembling in fear in some corner and eating while the mother glares at them like a drill sergeant. Is this preparation for Pessah!? No, it is a reign of terror, with the mother as Pharaoh presiding."
Moadim Lesimcha, which follows on the success of a recent translation of another of Aviner's books, Dimensions of Love, on relationships, is clearly intended for advanced readers with some background in religious scholarship.
For such people, particularly for those with little exposure to Rav Kook's legacy, it can provide a fascinating gateway into the works of one of modern Israel's most vibrant personalities.
When no one can hear you scream:
After complaining that a senior rabbi harassed her, a settlement resident becomes an outcast
By Ruth Sinai
Haaretz Daily - March 31, 2003
They warned her mother that her sisters' chances of a good match would be damaged, claims B.G. They tried to turn her brother and her husband's family against her. Over 100 rabbis, she says, including at least three candidates for the post of chief rabbi, signed notices that appeared in newspapers calling her a liar. Speeches have been made denouncing her, she claims, while Rabbi Moshe Bleicher, head of the Shavei Hebron Yeshiva, has published an article saying she suffers from mental illness and from hallucinations.
This is only part of the degradation B.G., a settlement resident, has suffered since a newspaper interview five months ago in which she alleged that she had been the victim of "improper behavior of a sexual nature," as she puts it, on the part of Beit El rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, who also heads the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva.
A second woman also alleged in the same interview that Aviner had sexually harassed her, both physically and verbally, and that she had been forced to move away.
"The mask of abuse and scheming that we lifted simply astounded us - 123 rabbis claimed that the two women were crazy and liars without knowing a thing about them, just because of what Rabbi Aviner and Rabbi Bleicher said," says Hannah Kahat, head of "Kolech" ("Your Voice") a forum for religious women that seeks to improve their status within the community.
The mass mobilization of the rabbinical institution to defend Rabbi Aviner has been coupled with a campaign not meant merely to silence the allegations, but also to eject these women from their community. Their full names have been diffused throughout the settlements along with supposed details of their lives.
B.G. felt like she had been backed into a corner. The two women filed a complaint with the police, but it was made clear to them that in this case, the matter was only borderline on the criminal. Even their appeals to a number of top rabbis, including Mordechai Eliahu, former Sephardi chief rabbi, were rejected. Only Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, head of the Rabinnical Court, was prepared to look into matters, but only on condition that they did not go to any other body. By talking to the papers, and thus exposing the allegations against Aviner, however, they broke the rules.
"Everything that I underwent emotionally until it all came out is steeped in pain," said B.G. a few days ago. "But what hurts most can be summed up in six words - my voice is not being heard. No one in my camp ... people I grew up with, whose opinion and honesty I always valued, is willing to listen to me."
The mere thought that these allegations will be hushed up and that Rabbi Aviner will be protected and remain a favorite of the Hassidim, while she is left with all the pain and embarrassment, has given B.G. little rest. Just last week, she filed a petition with a district court of the Kiryat Araba religious council in which she alleges that Aviner caused "severe and prolonged emotional distress ... involving sexual innuendo, prohibited affectionate touches and expressions." She also alleges that Aviner and Bleicher have given her a bad name and she asks the court to order the rabbis to publicly recant what they said and to compensate her. When it comes to such petitions in religious courts, however, the defendant must be in agreement before a trial is launched.
Aviner said in response that he is happy that there will finally be some sort of clarification of the case. He claims to have suggested such a discussion in a rabbinical court or some other such forum before the case was made public, which would have saved a lot of suffering on both sides, he adds, but his suggestion was rejected.
In her interview with the Ma'ariv newspaper, B.G. relates how 15 years ago, she went to Aviner seeking marriage counseling. This continued over the course of eight years, involving dozens of conversations, often late into the night, frequent meetings and letters. In the article, it is alleged that Aviner told B.G. that she had a beautiful body and allegedly said that "penetration is a very nice thing."
Aviner in response did not deny some of the statements attributed to him, but claims that they were taken out of context. He told Haaretz that the claims were all lies that had already been investigated by rabbis and other officials and found to be totally groundless.
B.G. is stunned by this claim, which also appeared in a statement by Bleicher, as neither she nor the other woman were asked to testify. What kind of investigation could have been held without consulting the two women, she asks. Sources close to Rabbi Aviner said in response that Rabbi Bleicher knows a thing or two about the complainant as he knows her brother-in-law and one of her brothers. Bleicher himself was unavailable for comment.
By Eetta Prince-Gibson
Jerusalem Post - April 11, 2003
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 7B
The 'Women of the Wall' didn't have a prayer this week when the High Court of Justice ruled against their being allowed to sing God's praises alongside the men. Box at end of text.
It was supposed to be the final chapter in the Women of the Wall's 14-year long political, legal and religious struggle. But it probably won't be.
Earlier this week, the High Court of Justice ruled that "Women of the Wall," an Orthodox women's prayer group, will not be allowed to pray aloud at the Western Wall with a Torah scroll, while wearing tallitot (prayer shawls) or other religious garments.
By a five-to-four majority, the Court accepted the government's position that the women's prayers are "a danger to public safety," and instructed the government to prepare the area of Robinson's Arch (an archeological site near the Wall) for the women's use.
"The Court realized that these women are a provocation to Torah-abiding Jews and finally put an end to this outrage," says a satisfied Rabbi Daniel Nasi, director of Manof, a haredi information center. "The Court has now officially declared women as second class citizens," declares a distraught Anat Hoffman, one of the leaders of the women's group and a former Jerusalem city councilwoman.
Although once they numbered close to 400, they are now a small group of 100 or so, and they are asking for 11 hours a year - once a month, for one hour, on Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the lunar month).
Yet it has taken the High Court of Justice 14 years and a panel of nine judges to reach this decision - which is filled with legal holes, political pitfalls, and social implications.
Robinson's Arch, the site proposed by the Court, is the only archeological site in the vicinity of the Temple Mount that remains exactly as it was since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The Western Wall cannot be touched from there, due to blockage by large boulders - which fell during the Destruction and have remained. The site is not accessible to wheelchairs or baby carriages, and there are no restrooms or other facilities. The Antiquities Authority has already announced that it objects to making any changes there.
Even the Court itself doesn't seem to think this is the final stage, since it added the proviso that if the government doesn't prepare the Robinson's Arch area within 12 months, it will have to permit the Women of the Wall to pray at the Wall.
Until then, the women will have to continue to pray at the Wall as they have until now - quietly, almost silently, without any sacred garments. When they wish to read from the Torah, they will leave the Wall and read in an alcove in the Jewish Quarter, with a distant view of the Wall for a background.
By law, any woman who violates these restrictions could be sent to jail for six months.
ON THE day of the ruling, Bracha Goldweisser, a 36- year-old Jerusalemite and mother of eight, is praying silently at the Wall, touching the ancient stones with her well-worn prayer book. She is dressed modestly, her hair covered tightly with a black kerchief. She identifies herself as a haredi woman.
It is not Rosh Hodesh, and so the Women of the Wall are not at the Wall. Told about the court ruling, Goldweisser says, "Thank God, who, in his wisdom, guided the judges. These women are such an abomination that even those secular judges understood that they have to be stopped.
"Women are not supposed to sing out loud. They should be quiet and tzniesdik," she says, using the Yiddish term for modest. "God does not want women to sing their prayers, and He won't listen to them."
Sometimes, she says, people praying at the Wall are so enraged that they spit at the women, curse them, throw things at them, and even hit them. "I never hit them, but I understand the people who do," she says. "My husband is on the men's side praying, and these women disturb him."
As always, the Western Wall area is filled with noise. At least three bar-mitzva groups, following different traditions and reading from differently-shaped Torah scrolls, have congregated on the men's side. Church bells and a muezzin's call from a nearby mosque add to the din. How could a small group of women bother Goldweisser's husband, at least 75 meters away?
"Just knowing that there are women like that at this holy site bothers him," she says.
Throughout the 14 years of legal battles see box , Women of the Wall have insisted on their right to pray at the women's section of the Wall according to "The Three T's" - wrapped in a tallit, reading from the Torah, and saying their tefilla (prayer) out loud.
In their briefs to the courts, the women have cited Orthodox rabbinical sources who say that their form of praying is not a violation of Halacha. Although some of the women belong to the more liberal Conservative and Reform movements, they have all deferred to their more strict Orthodox members and do not include the parts of the services which, according to most Orthodox authorities, are forbidden to women. Furthermore, they have photographs from the turn of the century proving that less than 100 years ago, men and women prayed together at the Wall.
Few haredi authorities recognize women's rights to prayer groups, however.
"These women are liars," says Nasi. "No respectable rabbi would ever say that what these women are doing is acceptable according to Jewish law. Women may pray at the Wall - as long as they respect our customs and laws."
SO, BY rejecting the women's petition, was the High Court of Justice ruling on an issue of Jewish law? Responds Frances Raday, professor of law at Hebrew University and chief counsel for Women of the Wall: "Yes, the Court accepted the most narrow, exclusionary interpretations of Jewish law, even though there are other valid interpretations."
But should the Supreme Court be ruling on religious issues?
"This is not merely a religious issue, and it goes right to the problem of religion and state in Israel," says Raday. "The Kotel is maintained and paid for by the state. The state must never support practices that are blatantly discriminatory against women or against any other group." The case of Women of the Wall, Raday continues, "represents issues of basic human and women's rights, and the fight for pluralism over fundamentalis and extremism, between enlightenment and theocracy."
Hoffman sees the religious struggle in feminist terms.
"The Kotel is a public space, and women in Israel struggle to take their place in public space. Not just at the Kotel - in the government, in the Knesset, in public policy, everywhere."
Hoffman also notes that while the haredi men and women get angry when they see the women praying in tallitot or using other traditionally male symbols, they become incensed when they hear women praying out loud.
"It's our voices that infuriate them," she says. "Our voices are emblematic. Women in Israel are silenced - not just in religion, but everywhere. Only one type of voice is supposed to be heard - the male voice. Maybe if we could hear the other half of the public, our society would be more just and more politically, socially, economically, and religiously successful.
Malka Puterkovsky, a teacher at the Lindenbaum Seminary for Women and a religious Jewish feminist, agrees that much of the objection to Women of the Wall is an attempt to silence women. She connects this silence to her own recent experiences. As a member of Kollech, a religious feminist group, she has provided vocal support for the women who have accused Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of sexual harassment and misconduct.
"Like the Women of the Wall, we have been condemned, humiliated, and vilified by the male leaders of our community. Like the Women of the Wall, they have tried to silence us," she says.
Hoffman believes that because groups like Women of the Wall and Kollech have refused to be silenced, the backlash against them is even stronger. She is not surprised that the fight is first played out at the Kotel, which is so central and symbolic in Judaism.
"First, the haredi men tried to silence Women of the Wall. Then they ruled that female soldiers would not be allowed to sing at the swearing-in ceremonies for Israel Defense Forces at the Kotel. Then, women were not allowed to sing at the president's inauguration at the Knesset - and this time, the secular men agreed, too.
"This even goes beyond women," Hoffman continues. "Recently, I was at the Kotel on Shabbat, and a disabled man came in a motorized wheelchair. The haredim told him to turn off the motor, because it offends their sensibilities. Is this the kind of intolerant society we want to be?"
HOFFMAN AND the other Women of the Wall compare themselves to the daughters of the Biblical Tzelafhad, who demanded that Moses give them their inheritance. They also think of Rosa Parks, the African American woman credited with sparking the American civil rights movement when she refused to move to the back of the bus.
They have tremendous support abroad. Noted Jewish feminists and scholars who have formed the International Committee for Women of the Wall, which has thousands of members and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for legal fees. They are convinced that they are writing a critical chapter in Jewish history.
Yet Women of the Wall never became a popular cause in Israel. Only a few politicians, most notably former MK Professor Naomi Chazan (Meretz) and MK Colette Avital (Labor) ever provided any support or even interest. Few feminists took up their cause, and no civil rights group ever became involved in representing them in the courts.
Explains Hoffman, "The public and the media in Israel don't really understand us. The feminists and the liberals see us as religious, so they think we're reactionary or irrelevant to their causes. Most religious groups see us as radical and heretical, especially since in Orthodox Judaism, the overall climate is increasingly strict and intolerant.
"We're like turtles with wings," Hoffman says. "The public thinks we, as religious women, are supposed to be like turtles - quiet, slow, and dumb. As feminists, the public thinks we're supposed to fly, and not care about religion or spirituality. So they don't know what to do with us or how to support us."
Yet Puterkovsky says that religious spirituality, including use of religious garments such as tallitot, is growing among young religious Zionist women.
"The Women of the Wall are the pioneers - and although there isn't a lot of public acknowledgement, they have a wide, quiet, following."
In contrast, Hoffman notes that large segments of the Jewish population in Israel have become alienated from religion and religious symbols.
"The Kotel is not a synagogue, and it's not only a religious symbol," she says. "It's also a national, historic, and cultural symbol. And the secular and traditional publics are so disgusted and alienated, they simply abdicate any connection with these places and symbols."
Goldweisser agrees. "The Kotel belongs to us the haredim ," she declares. "The rest of the Jews will just have to respect our sensitivities."
Nasi believes that the Court decision has "saved the Jewish people. If the Court had accepted the idea of religious pluralism, it would have destroyed the solidarity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. There is only one Judaism."
Hoffman believes that decisions such as this will tear the Jewish people apart. Haredim aren't the only Jews, but soon, non-haredi Jews won't be able to live in Israel. That's what Women of the Wall are about."
(Box) Arch enemies
It has taken Women of the Wall 14 years of up-hill legal, social, and political battles just to reach this plateau.
In December, 1988, during the First International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem, a multi- denominational group of approximately 70 women spontaneously decided to pray together, with a Torah scroll, at the Western Wall. Since no provision for Torah reading exists in the women's section, they brought a small folding table with them. Some of the women wore tallitot (prayer shawls). Enthused, they prayed out loud. The service was disrupted by curses and threats from ultra- Orthodox men and women.
Over the next few months, a group of Jerusalem women continued to pray regularly at the Wall. They were cursed, threatened, pushed, shoved, spat upon, and even bitten. Haredi men threw heavy metal chairs over the barrier dividing the men's and women's sections. Some women were injured and had to be taken to hospital.
At that time, there was no law forbidding women from praying at the Wall as they saw fit, but the police refused to provide them with protection. Several times, the women themselves, accused of "provoking the violence," were forced to leave. In April, 1989, four women petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court, asking for an order that would allow them to pray out loud with the Torah and to protect them from the continuing violence. The state was given six months to respond, and, in the interim, the Court issued a temporary injunction ordering the women not to pray at the Wall with tallit and Torah.
Since then, Women of the Wall, the ICWOW, the religious authorities, and the government have been involved in almost endless rounds of legal arguments. At least three different commissions that missed most of their court-appointed deadlines for filing their reports and usually did not allow the Women of the Wall to testify, tried to find solutions. The various committees offered various suggestions, including that the women could pray in the parking lot or at the south east corner of the Old City wall - which isn't even within the Old City, is unsafe for Jews, and does not require permission, because it is not a state-regulated site. A committee headed by Yaakov Neeman was the first to suggest Robinson's Arch as a solution.
At one point, as a result of the intense legal and political pressure, the women narrowed their demands to permitting a prayer group with a Torah to 11 hours a year, as long as the government would recognize and enforce their rights.
Finally, in May, 2000, a three-judge panel of the Israeli Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Women of the Wall's favor. In response, haredi lawmakers initiated legislation that would impose a seven-year prison sentence and monetary fine on women who wear prayer shawls, read from the Torah, blow a shofar, or put on tefillin (phylacteries) at the Western Wall. (The law passed its initial reading, but was struck down in committee.)
Although the Court's decision was unanimous, the attorney-general requested that the case be heard again by a nine-judge panel. This week, almost three years later, the Court handed down its reversal decision.
Frances Raday, professor of law at Hebrew University and chief counsel for Women of the Wall, notes that the written decision is based on internal contradictions. The explanations are written in the rhetoric of liberalism and human rights. Chief Justice Mishael Cheshin, writing for the majority, uses expressions such as "The Western Wall area is large and with a bit of goodwill, a space could be found for women." He even discusses why Robinson's Arch is inadequate and inappropriate for the women.
Yet he reaches a decision which upholds the haredi religious interpretation and denies other interpretations and human rights issues.
Hoffman believes that the court is bowing to haredi pressure.
"I think the Court was shaken by the demonstration in February, 1999, when 250,000 haredim demonstrated against the Supreme Court. On issues that they see as critical, the judges won't give in. But they seem to believe that women's rights, and especially women's religious rights, are expendable when it's politically expedient."
Says Raday, "This is not a courageous decision. I think that the Court is currying favor with the haredi public."
Yet haredi politicians remain concerned that the government will not implement the changes at Robinson's Arch, and that within a year, women will be legally allowed to pray at the Wall. Next week, they are planning to circumvent this possibility by re-introducing the legislation that would send a woman to prison for seven years if she violates the ultra-Orthodox regulations.
by Judy Klitsner
The Jewish Week - May 7, 2003
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=7873
With many accusations against rabbis, authorities and the religious establishment are slowly coming to grips with the problem.
Jerusalem — There is a growing public awareness in Israel of sexual abuse by rabbis, in part because of so many new cases being reported, including accusations against the recently elected Ashkenazic chief rabbi.
Unfortunately, these charges have come out in the press instead of being dealt with in a systematic and sensitive manner within the religious system. This points to the overall failure of the religious establishment to monitor itself and to take decisive action when complaints are brought.
As a result, the public is reading about it, becoming angry and increasingly aware of the need for some kind of action.
For years following the abuse I suffered at the hands of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, I tried in many ways to persuade religious leaders to stop his progress. When he was finally exposed and deposed (only because of the press), I began receiving calls from many quarters about abuses by other rabbis. I tried to help minimize the damage these rabbis could do by calling whomever I knew to put pressure on institutions that hired or promoted offending rabbis.
There were a few of us out there, people with extra sensitivity to this issue, and we learned to enlist each other's help whenever needed. Sometimes we succeeded; often we didn't.
I was greatly disturbed that an issue as serious as this was being addressed in this ad hoc way. Where were our leaders? Why was this not an issue of concern to all?
I finally decided to look for ways to address the problem in a more structured way. The immediate impetus was an expose some months ago in the Israeli daily Maariv on Rav Shlomo Aviner, the revered chief rabbi of Beit El and a central figure in the religious Zionist camp — "the rabbi's rabbi," the "holy of holies," as he has been called by his followers.
In the expose, two women accused the rabbi of creating emotionally intimate relationships with them. These relationships included his expressions of his love for them during regular late-night phone conversations, extracting details from them of their sexuality and promoting an unhealthy emotional dependence on him.
The women claimed they reported these problems to the highest echelons in the rabbinic establishment and were either passed along to other rabbis or told to keep silent and destroy any correspondence they had from the rabbi.
In response, the rabbinic establishment displayed a nearly unprecedented show of unity: on the very day the article appeared, my children (along with thousands of other children) returned from school with a letter signed by dozens of respected rabbis denouncing the "lies" that were reported by allegedly unstable, delusional women. Instead of calling for some kind of investigation, the community rallied around Rav Aviner and against his accusers.
Believing there had to be some way to defend these women and others like them, or at least to give them a chance to be heard seriously, I contacted the organization Kolech, a group of Orthodox feminists led by Chana Kehat, a religious scholar and activist. Fortuitously, I found that the group was beginning to organize itself around this issue. While discussing strategies for addressing the problem as a whole, a new case presented itself that put Kolech in the eye of the storm.
Several women called Kolech to complain about Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, a former head of, and later a lecturer in, the midrasha at Bar-Ilan University, who they claimed sexually harassed them when they were students at the university some years ago. Despite strong pressure against Kehat, who was accused of pursuing a "feminist" agenda, the university appointed a committee, headed by a rabbi, which heard testimony from several women in the presence of the accused rabbi. In the end, the unambiguous ruling was to dismiss Rabbi Cohen.
He is still fighting the decision and claims openly that he is the victim of a slander campaign by the "feminists." Rabbi Cohen says the feminists want to push rabbis out of their positions so they can replace them. The Bar-Ilan commission found no basis to his arguments and ruled that Kolech was operating entirely in good faith.
While I found the charge about feminists repugnant, it is fair to ask why we are practically alone in seeking to stop this terrible phenomenon, with the help of the press.
I can say from firsthand experience that these women do not relish this type of activity and in fact would much prefer to be working on positive reforms in the religious world. There is a palpable sense of distaste, yet a solemn duty to follow up on complaints that no one else wants to touch. This is a job that rabbis should be doing themselves but are not, for various reasons (collegiality, politics, fear of airing dirty linen in public, not wanting to deal with "unsavory" topics, etc.)
The Knesset, to its credit, recently held a special session, chaired by Gila Finkelstein, on the question of sexual harassment in the religious community. Many educators, including heads of prominent institutions of Torah learning for women, were in attendance as speakers addressed a number of issues, including the need for acceptable guidelines in conduct between rabbis and students.
Partly as a result of all this, I have been working for a long time toward constructing a rabbinical ethics committee. It would follow the precedent of other professional ethics committees, such as those of doctors, psychologists and university professors, setting down clear sets of norms and guidelines for acceptable behavior. The committee would hear and investigate complaints in a sensitive and thorough manner, reach conclusions and act on them.
We are in the process of bringing together various women's organizations in the hope of getting a broad spectrum of leaders to support the plan. We then have to find rabbis who will agree to serve at the head of such a committee, to give it the religious stamp of approval. So far the rabbis we have approached are reluctant to be actively involved, but they recognize the need for such a committee.
Though there are signs that the community and its leadership are beginning to face the severity and widespread nature of the problem, clearly there is much work yet to be done. n
Judy Klitsner is an instructor of Bible at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
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For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
