Responding to Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz - Director, Project Y.E.S
Project Y.E.S., a division of Agudath Israel of America Community Services, Inc., has developed a program designed specifically to address the situation.

The following are comments I posted on another blog. I've recieved a great deal of emails regarding the following statements and figued I should make the comments more public.


Excuse me for being naive and asking you the following questions. You stated on your blog:

1) I needed to edit your comment. I cannot allow names of individuals (alleged offenders) or schools (named in law suits or where there are allegations of mishandling cases) to remain on my site.

Why can't you allow names of individuals (of alleged or convicted sex offenders) or schools (where allgations were made of a cover-up) on your site?

One of the keys to prevention is warning parents and community members that there is a problem and that someone they know and love might be molesting their neighbors children. Don't you think it's wise to alert the communities of the problems?

OK, so you chased a sex offender out of your town, but aren't you concerned about the new community he moved in to?

2) Regarding the numbers [of victims] that I noted in my column. . .

Well, take the number of orthodox women in the world and the number of orthodox men. Statistically a third of the women and a fifth of the men were sexually abused as children. That's the answer you need to be addressing.

As for Dr. Pelcovitz, exactly what is his education and training in working with sex abuse? How long has he been working in the victimization field? From what I've found he's really only qualified to be working in the general mental health field. He really doesn't have the background in child abuse or neglect. I have to admit that I am not impressed by the "experts" you keep referring to.

3) I noted that I've been wanting to produce a booklet for members of the Torah community that will help parents speak to their children about abuse prevention. . . I am not a “one issue” person. I am certainly not an expert on abuse and neglect, nor do I plan on making the very noble cause of preventing abuse the primary or even secondary focus of my writing and/or time.

OK, now you got me really worried. You want to write a booklet about abuse prevention, you say you are not an expert on abuse and neglect, and you don't plan on becoming one. So why are you qualified to write a much needed booklet on this topic? First off there are tons of booklets out there created by extremely qualified individuals. Why are you recreating the wheel?

4) I do, however, take my responsibilities very seriously and felt that I should not dodge a tough question regarding the topic of abuse.

I'm happy you said this, but you should be working closely with the New York Coalition Against Sexual Assault. You want to make changes in the community? Please work only with those who are truly experts in the field!