What do we do with Rabbis who are Sex Offenders and their Smicha's (Ordination)?
I was recently having a conversation with someone regarding the topic of having a rabbi's ordination overturned/revolked.
I was told the only way that can happen in orthodox circles (RCA or Agudath Israel of America) is if the rabbi who gave the ordination takes it back.
There's a problem though; If the rabbi who gave an offender his smicha dies, then there is nothing anyone can do. I think about how rabbis can decide all sorts of things, but I don't understand why they haven't had a summit to change this practice? Do they care more about thier image, then they do about protecting innocent potential victims?
I either read somewhere or was told that Marc Gafni almost had has his ordination revoked. But right before that happened he gave it back to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. Gafni still has ordinations by other rabbis. My question is that with all the information that's available, why hasn't those other rabbis also revoked his ordination?
I've also been told it's highly unusual for a rabbi to revoke an ordination. I'm really confused with the Gafni case, why hasn't every Jewish news paper didn't pick it up? Wouldn't you think it would be headline news?
I also think about all the smicha's Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach has given. Off the top of my head I automatically think of Rabbi Hershy Worch, who was living in Chicago, and now resides in Istanbul, Turkey.
I heard that because Worch doesn't belong to any rabbinical organization, meaning there is nothing any can do.
So the Worch saga continues. He is still considered an orthodox rabbi. So the odds are he is continuing his Kiruv work (Jewish outreach), and practicing S & M form of Kabbalah. Luring more victims in.
If an orthodox rabbi is an alleged or convicted sex offender, they will remain being a rabbi. Think about it. If you can't revoke a smicha, and all you can do is kick someone out of a rabbinical association, then does it really make a difference what can you do? The alleged or convicted offender can continue using their title of rabbi to lure in innocent victims and continue offending.
Maybe everyone needs to contact the rabbinical associations (RCA or Agudath Israel of America) and see if public pressure will get them to change?
I was told the only way that can happen in orthodox circles (RCA or Agudath Israel of America) is if the rabbi who gave the ordination takes it back.
There's a problem though; If the rabbi who gave an offender his smicha dies, then there is nothing anyone can do. I think about how rabbis can decide all sorts of things, but I don't understand why they haven't had a summit to change this practice? Do they care more about thier image, then they do about protecting innocent potential victims?
I either read somewhere or was told that Marc Gafni almost had has his ordination revoked. But right before that happened he gave it back to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. Gafni still has ordinations by other rabbis. My question is that with all the information that's available, why hasn't those other rabbis also revoked his ordination?
I've also been told it's highly unusual for a rabbi to revoke an ordination. I'm really confused with the Gafni case, why hasn't every Jewish news paper didn't pick it up? Wouldn't you think it would be headline news?
I also think about all the smicha's Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach has given. Off the top of my head I automatically think of Rabbi Hershy Worch, who was living in Chicago, and now resides in Istanbul, Turkey.
I heard that because Worch doesn't belong to any rabbinical organization, meaning there is nothing any can do.
So the Worch saga continues. He is still considered an orthodox rabbi. So the odds are he is continuing his Kiruv work (Jewish outreach), and practicing S & M form of Kabbalah. Luring more victims in.
If an orthodox rabbi is an alleged or convicted sex offender, they will remain being a rabbi. Think about it. If you can't revoke a smicha, and all you can do is kick someone out of a rabbinical association, then does it really make a difference what can you do? The alleged or convicted offender can continue using their title of rabbi to lure in innocent victims and continue offending.
Maybe everyone needs to contact the rabbinical associations (RCA or Agudath Israel of America) and see if public pressure will get them to change?
posted by Jewish Survivors at Saturday, March 05, 2005
5 Comments:
Important and excellent questions that demand some answers. My thoughts will be forthcoming once I can edit them into a language that is printable.
The only answer that I see is to take these people to the authorities, and to publicise the fact that they are dangerous. It doesn't seem like anything that we have in place in our communities is doing any good. Look at the case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks. He was kicked out of various orginazations but does that stop him?
Anonymous #1, I would love to see your unedited version. I don't care about the watered down version.
"I heard that because J. H. Worch doesn't belong to any rabbinical organization, meaning there is nothing any can do."
Well something needs to be done, still.
I can't help but wonder sometimes---if there had been a place where the women he abused in the '80's could report, he may not have been able to go on to abuse the women he abused in the nineties.
Likewise, had there been somewhere the women he abused through the '90's could report---and background could be checked on him---he may not have been able to have continued on to abuse *me*.
I believe the rabbis at both the RCA and the CRC that spoke with me were genuinely concerned and empathetic, and the one at the former had heard many complaints on him before mine.
Still, I do not understand the reasoning and *whys* behind their 'inability' to at least make a public statement regarding him, to at least put some weight behind warning others.
After all, they all have copies of his own writings in their hands. They have copies of his sexual dismemberment writings and his sexual kicks over mind-control, copies of those writings that reveal him as him. If that isn't evidence enough, beyond various women's testimonies, that he's into creating a cult about himself, I don't know what is. I was willing to meet with them face to face---they have a written statement about his sexual decapitation fantasy as well.
If they won't even issue a public statement regarding someone *this* extreme, then I would not hold out much hope for their issuing warnings about others.
"I heard that because J. H. Worch doesn't belong to any rabbinical organization, meaning there is nothing any can do."
Well something needs to be done, still.
I can't help but wonder sometimes---if there had been a place where the women he abused in the '80's could report, he may not have been able to go on to abuse the women he abused in the nineties.
Likewise, had there been somewhere the women he abused through the '90's could report---and background could be checked on him---he may not have been able to have continued on to abuse *me*.
I believe the rabbis at both the RCA and the CRC that spoke with me were genuinely concerned and empathetic, and the one at the former had heard many complaints on him before mine.
Still, I do not understand the reasoning and *whys* behind their 'inability' to at least make a public statement regarding him, to at least put some weight behind warning others.
After all, they all have copies of his own writings in their hands. They have copies of his sexual dismemberment writings and his sexual kicks over mind-control, copies of those writings that reveal him as him. If that isn't evidence enough, beyond various women's testimonies, that he's into creating a cult about himself, I don't know what is. I was willing to meet with them face to face---they have a written statement about his sexual decapitation fantasy as well.
If they won't even issue a public statement regarding someone *this* extreme, then I would not hold out much hope for their issuing warnings about others.
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