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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Open Letter to the Jewish Press

The following letter was written in coordination with a number of other J-bloggers in the hopes that the message can be disseminated as far and as quickly as possible in a joint campaign against hiding abuse in our communities, and reversing the culture of fear that kannoim have been allowed to engage in for years now. We ask that people take a few seconds and copy and send this letter or another letter on the subject to the editors of the Jewish Press in the hopes that this will show the importance of the issue to the public. This is an issue that cannot be avoided or shoved under the rug, and the threats of individuals cannot be allowed to hold sway over our communities. Please take a few seconds and send a letter to the Jewish Press at letters@jewishpress.com. Thank you!
To the Editorial Board of the Jewish Press:

We would like to express our horror at the intimidation and harassment of Dr. Benzion Twerski for his efforts to protect our children from molestation, and we salute you for your courage in publishing the Op-Ed column condemning the harassment of Dr. Twerski. We feel that exposing the actions of the kannoim is the first step in reversing their campaign of terror against members of our community.

We are fed up with the fact that the extremists in our community are allowed to threaten peaceful citizens with threats and we would like to see our police officers arrest and prosecute those who do so to the fullest extent of the law.

If there are any acts of intimidation or threats to Dov Hikind's next appointee to the Child Safety committee; we will join and support a massive email drive to our elected officials – on the local, state and federal levels – to step in and protect those who are helping protect our children.

We respectfully ask you to run an editorial next week condemning this disgraceful act, acknowledging the number of these emails that were sent to you and calling on our leaders and rabbonim to publicly distance themselves from acts of intimidation and violence each and every time they occur with the same fervor reserved for other actions that contradict our holy Torah – and to declare the acts of violence as the sins they are.

Respectfully submitted,

Ezzie Goldish (SerandEz)

P.S. Please note that this e-mail was a joint letter composed by numerous members of the community in a coordinated effort.

15 comments:

  1. But Dr. Twerski has said that he WASN'T physically threatened. It was a threat of the social ostracization of his children and grandchildren that.

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  2. Gil - The first mention of "of violence" in the original draft was removed after Dr. Twerski's statement; the latter one was missed and should have been removed as well, though it does not claim he was threatened with violence, merely notes that should any later appointee be so threatened, etc.

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  3. Please note that the words "of violence" have been removed now.

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  4. I'll say the same thing I said over at DB- this is a complete waste of time. The people and communities you are targeting with this don't read the Jewish Press.

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  5. I saw the comment there and very much disagree. As with any letter, you're not trying to reach the people who are doing the things you're discussing, but those affected by it who can make smaller stands of their own. Is a kannoi ever going to stop what he's trying to do? Unlikely. But the other people might say "you know what, that's right. Enough is enough."

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  6. Bad4 and I were actually disussing this topic on a different detail. She said getting upset didn't hlep any and I said you had to get upset in order to remember to effect change.

    Kudos for not losing the idealism, Ezzie. I'm sending this right away. Kol Hakavod.

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  7. Bad4 and I were actually disussing this topic on a different detail. She said getting upset didn't hlep any and I said you had to get upset in order to remember to effect change.

    Kudos for not losing the idealism, Ezzie. I'm sending this right away. Kol Hakavod.

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  8. As with any letter, you're not trying to reach the people who are doing the things you're discussing, but those affected by it who can make smaller stands of their own.

    Except the people affected by it are also the type who don't read the JP.

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  9. I don't think that's true. More people have it lying around than you think. The other papers won't print it.

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  10. I don't think that's true. More people have it lying around than you think.

    The Jewish Press isn't exactly the paper of choice in New Square and Kiray Yoel.

    The other papers won't print it.

    That's the real problem here.

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  11. Understood. But the stories are coming from Brooklyn and the Five Towns, where plenty of people read the JP. Not that there are/aren't stories elsewhere, but a start has to be made somewhere.

    Don't worry, nobody views this as the only step we need to take.

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  12. Take out the courage part and send it to Yated and Hamodia too

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  13. There are plenty of people who read the JP who need to see that they are not alone in feeling that the violence committed against our children is an outrage. And those others, the "silent" ones, will hear about the JP letters to the editors--amazing how that grapevine works--and they will be given to understand that we aren't buckling under and going away, that we won't leave this issue to slowly die away. The first step is not to be afraid to say in print that what is going on is wrong. If we give chizuk to only one person who has been victimized who feels that there would be people who backed him/her up then maybe a phone call to the police would be made.

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  14. Were not dealing here only with kannoim. We're also dealing with community members fearful of and/or duped by the kannoim. These members then, like it or not, become the foot soldiers of the kannoim.

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  15. This man only wants to help protect the children. It's Not like someone going and spreading rumors about people hurting others. If somethings happens, he would investigate and take care of the matter. That's what we need.

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