Rabbi said 'reporting abusers was a sin' - The Jewish Chronicle

An up-and-coming member of the rabbinate of the Stamford Hill-based Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations has described reporting suspected child abusers to the secular authorities as a “severe sin”, according to The Times.

Dayan Paltiel Schwarcz, in a rabbinic paper in Hebrew written in spring, argued that there were almost no circumstances when an Jewish abuser could be reported to the police, the newspaper said.

The story has appeared on the eve of tomorrow’s publication of a report into religious organisations by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Dayan Schwarcz was a “junior dayan” who was “exceptionally clever,” a source in the Charedi community told the JC.

But his paper appeared to be at odds with evidence given to the IICSA on behalf of the Union by Rabbi Yehudah Baumgarten.

Asked by the IICSA about mesirah – the prohibition against informing on a fellow-Jew to the secular authorities - Rabbi Baumgarten said that "mesirah does not apply where the person being reported is causing harm to others…The rabbinate is absolutely clear.”

Reiterating Rabbi Baumgarten's assurance, a spokesman for the UOHC said the Union's position was that "mesirah does not apply where the person being reported is suspected of causing criminal harm to others, such as in the case of child abuse. The rabbinate is at one and absolutely clear that this is not mesirah."

The UOHC, he added,had not been aware of "the document purported to have originated with Rabbi Schwarcz. However, having now checked the facts and indeed spoken with the rabbi, we can confirm that the document that came into the possession of The Times is merely an unaddressed, unsigned, incomplete academic draft that was sent to one person for review and for consultation regarding its standing in English law, as is the norm in academia."

The document had "not been published, nor was it prepared with regard to a specific case," the spokesman said. "Regardless, such dissertations do not in any way take away from the seriousness with which the rabbinate consider this matter, nor do they abrogate our clear and unambiguous position.”

On late Wednesday afternoon, the Federation of Synagogues Beth Din put out a statement on Twitter, saying that in the light of recent public interest, it wished to reaffirm that "the unequivocal position of halachah is that child abusers must be reported to the authorities".

Statement from the Federation Beth Din pic.twitter.com/muieek98xU
— The Federation (@FederationUK) September 1, 2021

Earlier this week in Israel a video was released in which one of the world’s most influential Charedi scholars, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, supported the reporting of abusers.

According to the Jerusalem Post, asked what someone should do in such circumstances, he responded, “Go to the police quietly”.

Rabbi Asher Melamed, director of the Israeli Protection Centre, which works against abuse within the Charedi community, said Rabbi Kanievsky was “saying clearly and sharply that one must report sex abusers to the police and that sexual abuse is akin to murder of the soul”.

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