Thread by @wordpaley

When you mock, deny the need for, and celebrate the “failure” of efforts to publicize the sexual abuse of children—in the name of your Orthodox way of life—you’re saying your way of life doesn’t hold children’s safety and well-being paramount. That’s not something to be proud of.

These guys know better. They know many, if not most, people in their communities don’t have social media. Some don’t even have smartphones, computers. How are they going to find out about Chaim Walder? How are they going to know how to protect their children from people like him?

When there are STILL big rabbis and rebbetzins saying that Loshon Hora killed Chaim Walder, that he simply “lost his balance,” that the lesson is for women to dress and act modestly, how will people learn the truth? How will victims not continue to be intimidated into silence?

https://twitter.com/2Bistheanswer/status/1478086583001784322

You know what’s not clean? Covering up for sexual abusers.
Not protecting your kids as best as you can.
Letting victims suffer and die in the name of your comfort.

(Not even going to get into the implication that women’s faces aren’t clean).

I know about @yakovhorowitz’s books. They’re very important, even if I don’t entirely agree with the approach.

You can’t fully protect children until they know that if it happens to them, they will be believed, and people won’t shut them up because what happened was “unclean”.

When victims see their family’s primary source of community information (Jewish publications) say nothing about Walder, you know what they see? They see a community putting religious comfort before their own lives. They see people moving on from what they will never move on from.

I’m not saying the Charedi way of life overlooks suffering and death. I love my Charedi family and respect their way of life. I’m saying if you’re Charedi and advocating for silencing victims, you WILL find a religious justification for it.

In the name of God, stop that.

This book is worlds better than Rabbi Horowitz’s book, by the way. Not perfect, but still way better. And it doesn’t have an intro from an “expert” who admitted to encouraging people in Lakewood to send victims to rabbis, not police (Dr. David Pelcovitz).
magenu.org/shopitem05.html