From The New York Times:

The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested.

Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted Mr. Jungreis’s mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she “did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?”

The moral fiber of a community strives for its people to feel safe from predators of all types. Mental and physical well being of children (but, really, all people) should be of the utmost importance. The safety of children needs to be considered. In some religious communities, it is not. We’ve all heard of priests molesting boys so much, it’s the butt of many jokes. This reminds me of this poorly executed Catholic group’s logo: 

All silliness aside, the Catholic molestation cases are prevalent in our minds but not so much the Jewish ones. Whether or not this is only happening in a handful of communities, the problem is that this is happening at all. Sometimes “keeping to themselves” becomes a hefty issue that the larger society must sort out.

Pearl Engelman, a 64-year-old great-grandmother, also noted that the community has failed her.

In 2008, her son, Joel, told rabbinical authorities that he had been repeatedly groped as a child by a school official at the United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg. The school briefly removed the official but denied the accusation. And when Joel turned 23, too old to file charges under the state’s statute of limitations, they returned the man to teaching.

…

“There is no nice way of saying it,” Mrs. Engelman said. “Our community protects molesters. Other than that, we are wonderful.”

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“Standing Silent” is a new documentary by Phil Jacobs. It uncovers the ritual abuse in an Orthodox Jewish community in Baltimore, Maryland. Jacobs went on a quest to uncover the stories from the sexual abuse survivors.

The Washington Post has a piece on it. It’s very moving.

One by one the victims stood and described their alleged molesters: the Torah teacher, the rabbi, the ice cream truck driver, the man at the mikvah.

That meeting, held nearly six years ago in a small room in a synagogue in Pikes­ville, just outside Baltimore, went on for four hours. Seated in a circle with the other victims was Phil Jacobs, a Baltimore Jewish Times journalist. He was not there as a reporter. He was there because he, too, had experienced sexual abuse.

…

“Standing Silent” was filmed between 2007 and 2010, with a three-person crew that traveled with Jacobs through Baltimore’s suburbs and to Israel, eventually recording more than 125 hours of video, much of it interviews with victims and alleged perpetrators.

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There is a gallery of a few still from the movie. You can view the “Standing Silent” gallery here. I’m unsure where to actually watch the film. Or when it’s coming out.

In any case, there’s also Survivors for Justice.

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Right after uploading the photo to Flickr, he noticed the preceding photo using the search term “Chris Brown”:

I uploaded the image to Flickr and performed a search on Chris Brown. I think this screen shot tells the whole story very well. If a picture says a thousand words, what does a screen shot say?

A million?

Wow.

Of course, Chris Brown has retreated to the church for counseling and has a PR firm working hard on trying to stop the freefall that is his career.

Because the traditional teachings of Christianity (well, all the Abrahamic religions) emphasize treating women well…

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McGowan, 44, a father of three who lives in Robbinsdale, believes that teaching secular children to be compassionate, critical thinkers is not only possible, but more honest. 

Honesty is key to raising a more reasonable youth. My mother would tell me stories of the tooth fairy, even when I knew better. I was upset she lied for a while. She was never really able to admit she lied; she continued stating the tooth fairy does exist even into my twenties, all while giving me a silly smile as if you convey the correct message. (Sadly, same thing with “The Stork”.) Parents lie to kids about so many things and it’s sickening. Kids are precious and take everything at face value, especially from their parents/guardians. Lying only drives a bigger wedge into that trust parents wish to develop later on.

McGowan goes on to explain his main message to parents in Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion:

One: Never fear a question. The whole idea of free thought is that you sit down before a fact like a little child, then follow it wherever it leads. My own kids have gone to a Lutheran preschool. I’m happy to have them exposed to religious ideas; the only ones I won’t tolerate are hell and the assertion that doubt is bad. I say, let the child ponder ideas and run with them. 

Two: Avoid saying that something is the way it is “because I said so.” Take the time to give a reason in discussions about truth or morality.

Three: The failure of empathy is responsible for a tremendous amount of destruction in the world. It’s dangerous to divide ourselves from others and demonize them.

Four: One of the ways to ease the pain of death so people don’t have to run for religious comfort is to accept and acknowledge its reality.

Ever heard of good parenting? The promise of flames and fires for doing something wrong IS NOT good parenting; it’s lazy parenting. It’s also important we recognize reality, hence why atheists talk about religion more than they would care to (in an ideal world). There is a current predicament where there is one religious dogma or another that permeates throughout any chosen area. Strong Christians are helping to spread AIDS in America, other countries (and everywhere Christians set up Missionaries, i.e. Africa). Telling a country that has an AIDS count of 1:2 that they can’t use condoms is indecent, if not murderous. Let’s take longer to cure diseases and viruses, while helping perpetuate them…yeah…good idea! And America’s safe sex (AKA abstinence only – without masturbation) policy? Don’t get me started!

This is reality. As harmful as religion is, I am not in the business of trying to “convert” anyone. However, I can do my best to seek positive global change.

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So, then how would your Average Joe know what religion to choose? You are what you are born as? In Judaism, you are what your mother is. But what does that really mean? Is it a way to keep the Jewish race (its a race in this case) strong after all encountered atrocities? So then, Catholic parents automatically enroll their children into Catholicism previous to their birth. I guess what they call “original sin” I call “we are all born atheists”.

I can’t help but be reminded of Richard Dawkins assertion:

There is no such thing as a Christian child, there is only a child of Christian parents. Whenever you hear the phrase Christian child or Muslim child or Protestant child or Catholic child, the phrase should grate like fingernails on a blackboard. 

I couldn’t agree more.

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