For days I have been waiting to see a mention about the Walder saga on YWN. The silence was deafening. When Tzvi Gluck’s article was published I thought finally this is being addressed. I was dan lkaf zechus that the delay was due to the fact that this was a sensitive topic and shocking revelation. I thought YWN must have needed some time to address this topic intelligently and properly. But then there was more silence. And even though when I searched enough I was able to find choshuva people from our circles who addressed it (Rabbi YY Jacobson among them) nothing appeared on YWN. The breaking point came when I read a letter posted from the mailbag about how important it is to use this horrific story as a teachable moment to reinforce the gravity of embarrassing someone. That was too much to bear. I am not a survivor of molestation nor is anyone I know. I am a thinking logical person who knows that when 22 people say they were molested by the same man (not to mention all the other evidence) they are not lying. People don’t usually lie about being molested. It is not really something people want to flaunt. Definitely not 22 of them. 22 people who don’t even know each other, don’t live near each other, don’t all just come up with the same story. How ironic to publish a letter about not embarrassing someone, not causing them pain, when that letter will cause so many untold victims of abuse such incredible pain. The silence was horrible but this is even worse. There is one thing the letter writer got right. This is a teachable moment. So much pain has been unleashed because of what Was done. So much more pain has been piled on top by the reaction or lack of reaction from the yeshivish media. The only redeeming thought is that all this pain could teach us something, could be a springboard for change. Yes, it is important to not embarrass people but that is not the lesson we need to take out from this nightmare. We have to educate ourselves about this type of abuse, about the characteristics of the predators and the damage to the victims. We have to openly address it so it won’t happen again because the only way to banish darkness is to shine a light on it and face it head on. This letter pains me, it infuriates me, and it EMBARRASSES me. I don’t want to be associated with its message. Somehow I doubt you will be posting my letter to the editor, but I believe there are many who feel as I do. I hope that if nothing else our voices could be heard so we don’t have to sit silently in shame, embarrassed to show our faces to our not yet frum brethren and the world at large. Rivka Cohen. PREVIOUS YWN ARTICLES: [Rabbonim Instruct Feldheim To Cease Publishing Chaim Walder’s Popular Children’s Books After Serious Allegations Surface] [Leading Bnei Brak Dayanim Pasken Not To Read Walder’s Books Until ‘Further Clarification’] [Chaim Walder Summoned To Beis Din Regarding ‘Extremely Severe’ Allegations] [Support Victims Of Abuse: Let not History Repeat Itself!] NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not […]
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