A Brooklyn assemblyman, Dov Hikind, said that after he broached the subject of child molestation among Orthodox Jews on his radio show this summer, dozens of people came forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community. As many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than 60 perpetrators, he said.
But according to WABC in New York, he said he won’t breach victims’ trust by disclosing the private exchanges to prosecutors – or to a lawyer who subpoenaed him in a civil case against a school accused of concealing abuse.
Rather, the outpouring has spurred him to work on devising mechanisms within the Orthodox world for reporting sex abuse and sharing information on school staffers’ previous postings. He aims to present a plan to rabbis this winter.
Critics have said sex abuse claims are sometimes handled quietly in Orthodox rabbinical courts, rather than being reported to authorities, though Orthodox leaders are hardly alone in trying to keep such allegations private. For decades, Roman Catholic leaders often transferred predatory clergy among parishes without telling parents or police. In a 2007 nationwide investigation of sex abuse by teachers, The Associated Press discovered efforts to stop individual offenders but, overall, a deeply entrenched resistance toward recognizing and fighting abuse.
Some sexual abuse cases involving Orthodox Jewish schools have spilled into the secular legal system in Brooklyn. In one of the most notorious, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was charged with sexually abusing boys at an Orthodox school. He admitted no sexual wrongdoing and pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge. Kolko was sentenced to three years of probation and has been dismissed from the school, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz. The school’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a telephone call.
Six former students are suing the school, saying it covered up Kolko’s misdeeds. Their lawyer subpoenaed Hikind this month, seeking to find out whether he learned anything relevant to the case during his impromptu fact-finding about sexual abuse among the Orthodox.
Brooklyn prosecutors say they are open to hearing the claims, and Hikind said he encourages those who confide in him to talk to the authorities. But none will, he said, for fear of ostracism from a community worried about being stigmatized.