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August 24, 2001/Elul 5, 5761, Vol. 53, No.46
Getting our houses in order
FLO ECKSTEIN
Publisher
Shockwaves reverberated through the American Jewish community last year when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Rabbi Baruch Lanner, an educator with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth of the Orthodox Union.
Reports published by The Jewish Week in New York, and later by a NCSY Special Commission, suggest that OU authorities largely ignored complaints about Lanner's behavior. His misconduct purportedly extended over three decades and involved at least 20 teenage girls.
In a statement to the NCSY commission, Lanner wrote: "In the past, (my) conduct, on occasion, was inappropriate." The state of New Jersey has charged him with sexual abuse of two teenage girls when he was principal of a Jewish day school.
A JTA story states that "until this year, the O.U. had no system for field complaints and never educated NCSY members about what to do if they were abused or harassed." It now consults outside experts, holds staff training sessions and is establishing procedures to deal with charges of sexual misconduct.
The Lanner affair offers lessons for the entire American Jewish community. "We're a community that would like to believe that our religious lives prevent these problems," Rabbi Yosef Blau of Yeshiva University's rabbinic seminary told JTA. Sadly, there is no guaranteed connection between religiosity and moral behavior.
How do our agency executives and clergy address the issue of sexual misconduct in their institutions?
"We do background checks, including fingerprinting, when we hire people who will have contact with children," says Mark Shore, executive vice president of the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, which operates a preschool, day camp and other programs for children. The center also does "youth protection" training with teachers and camp counselors, bringing in professionals from the state's Child Protective Service agency to talk about abuse. "There are laws protecting kids today, thank God, and we want to protect the staff as well. ... We constantly reinforce effective behavior with children."
Further, preschool teachers and childcare workers are "mandated reporters," required by law to inform CPS about children "who show symptoms of abuse, physical or emotional," Shore says.
A Valley congregational rabbi shares a different experience. "It's a good issue you're raising," he says. "I'm not sure we have specific policies written down anywhere, but I'm consciously and unconsciously aware of the issues constantly." He acknowledges he's never talked formally about the subject with his congregation's staff or board. "Most of our religious school faculty are either teachers in public school, or members of the congregation," he says. "We've operated on the assumption that everyone would know (what to do)."
Assumptions. We all make them. But on issues as sensitive as our children's protection, they're not enough. "We're here for the public trust," Shore says.
It's time for our community to confront openly the issue of how we treat the children entrusted to our care and formulate policies and procedures to make certain our actions warrant that trust.
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