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5/6/09
Dear Readers:
The debate, mostly one-sided, about the Markey Bill has been framed in the starkest terms on the Internet and on the street: "If you are for the bill, you are for children; if you are opposed to it; you are a horrible person who is akin to a child molester." And in my particular case, being opposed to the bill means that I am a sellout, wimp, lackey-for-the-rabbis, biased-person-who-works-for-the-Agudah, and on and on.
Well; I don't see it that way. To me, the question is, "What are the most effective steps we can take moving forward to protect our children?"
Bringing lawsuits against yeshivos would not even rate in the "top ten" if I were to compile a list of things I would recommend to keep today's children safe and to professionally treat the countless victims of abuse in our community.
“But isn't this the only way to end the cover-ups? Don't victims have their right to their day in court? Looking at the success of similar legislation in California (hundreds of pedophiles exposed and no schools closed), how can you be opposed to the Markey Bill?
Isn't the Markey Bill better than nothing? Isn't it true that the only way to fix things is to hit the schools where it hurts -- in their wallets?”
I will address each of these questions in future columns -- and on the Zev Brenner radio program at 9:00 p.m. E.D.T. tonight, if they are posed to me in the Q&A segment.
I fully acknowledge all my biases and list my disclaimers. I am a school principal, a department head of the Agudah, I am very involved in Torah Umesorah, and I have the zechus to have close relationships with many Moetzes members.
Having said that, here are some other disclaimers:
1) No one asked me to write this column or to defend/support the Agudah's position; it was entirely my idea.
2) I would never write anything I did not fully believe in.
3) The relationship of Project YES with Agudas Yisroel is akin to one of a married child with his/her parents -- a close relationship, but fully independent. I am ultimately responsible for raising all the funds for Project YES myself, and have a great deal of latitude to do things my own way. Should I wish to; I could "spin off" Project YES from the Agudah and be completely independent at any time. Project YES and I are affiliated with the Agudah because I am proud to be so.
I wrote this column fully aware that I would take an enormous amount of personal and profession criticism for my non-support of the Markey Bill. If I was poll-driven and was looking for the accolades of people on the street, I would have joined the herd or stayed on the sidelines. This column represents a principled stand of mine, opposing what I feel is a diversion from the agenda of child safety and a material threat to our mosdos overall.
I have no fear of standing alone. I stood alone when I wrote about at-risk teens 13 years ago. I stood alone when I wrote about abuse and molestation years ago. I stood alone and was subjected to ridicule when I wrote a while back that the greatest cause of kids going off the derech was abuse, and that the "threat of the Internet is like a firecracker compared to the atom bomb of abuse" -- a position diametrically opposed to many of my colleagues, who to this day point the finger of blame to the Internet for many of our communal problems.
And I am proud to swim against the tide today -- and stand alone if I must -- firmly and humbly supporting the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah shlit”a in their stand opposing the Markey Bill.
"V'yehi chelki imahem" (May it be the will of Hashem that I have the zechus to remain with them -- in this world and the next).
Yakov Horowitz
My permission is granted to those who wish to circulate the following article on their websites, as long as it is published in its entirety with the above “letter to my readers” attached to it and the links to my articles listed below, so that your readers will understand my position on the Markey bill, in the context of my broader writings about abuse and molestation over the past several years. Y.H.
Walking the Dog Backwards
Why I Am Opposed to the Markey Bill
If you were to attend a convention of mental health professionals who specialize in treating abuse victims and you were to ask the attendees which steps or initiatives they would like to see implemented to protect children from predators and to assist those who have already been victimized, you would probably get responses like:
With that in mind, even a cursory examination of the “Child Victims Act” of New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey begs the question of why not one of the items listed above is included in a bill ostensibly designed with the noble goal of helping to protect children?”
The “Markey” legislation would extend the statute of limitations in New York State on both criminal and civil cases involving the sexual abuse of children. It would also open a one-year "window" during which time victims of abuse could bring claims for events that occurred even decades ago, not only against the perpetrators but also against the institutions that employed them.
The bill has been the subject of intense debate in our community as of late, as many abuse victims and people who are advocating for child abuse prevention have passionately supported the bill. The recent joint statement released by Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah opposing the “Markey” legislation generated a great deal of discussion, much of it critical – from outside the Agudah constituency and even from members of our own kehila.
There are other significant questions come to mind as well when reflecting upon the Markey Bill. Currently, children who attended public school have only 90 days after they turn 18 to file a claim for abuse that occurred in public school. The Markey Bill would not change that in any way. Why would secular legislators in Albany be interested in protecting kids attending parochial schools more than those in the broader population?
Imagine the (appropriate) public outrage that would ensue if the New York State Government were to offer free flu shots to private school kids and not to those attending public schools! (It is perfectly fair to note that public schools have far more safety measures for screening, training and oversight than do private schools. But to suggest that there is little or no abuse in public schools and, by extension, that public school kids are not in need of legislation to protect them is flat-out ridiculous.)
Additionally, what is being done to prevent the cycle from repeating itself, as we all know that untreated victims are far more likely to abuse others? Shouldn’t we turn over every stone to help fund the treatment of abuse victims – for their own mental health and for the safety of our community at large?
Due to the fact that I have been for years now, and will always continue to be, a staunch and vocal advocate for victims of abuse and molestation worldwide – writing and lecturing about the horrors of abuse in our community long before any of the ugly media reports and lawsuits began and long before it became socially acceptable to do so – I was approached by many dedicated individuals and asked to throw my support behind the bill. I fended off the requests and stayed on the sidelines, as my antenna kept tingling each time I read and re-read the content of the bill, mostly because I was troubled by the dichotomy between the treatment of abuse in private and public schools, and by the exclusion of far more immediate and effective measures that would help today’s children directly. Something just didn’t add up.
The term, “Walking the dog backwards,” was coined to explain a common technique employed by those who work in the complicated galaxy of counter-intelligence and who are constantly playing a 3-dimentional game of chess as they sift through a mishmash of information and disinformation in a world where the average spy might be a double or triple agent. Therefore, when faced with a perplexing set of circumstances, they are trained to evaluate who stands to gain or lose from the final result of any particular chain of events and, working backwards, think about the real cause-and-effect of things.
Well; we all know that the world of politics is similarly filled with plots and sub-plots, so I decided to approach things from that end and examine the Markey Bill through the prism of the entire public school/private school debate.
It is a debate that consistently spills over into battles across the nation over school vouchers, tax-credits for private school tuition, taxpayer support for private school services such as remedial and counseling services; the list goes on and on, with public school advocates vigorously opposing any funding for private schools – even for such things as the aforementioned remedial and counseling services that help children and not schools – claiming that they undermine the public schools. And it is a debate that will have enormous ramifications for members of our community moving forward – especially as we look to states and school districts for relief from staggering tuition payments in this tanking economy.
Ok; let’s do some dog walking. Question: Who is the most vocal advocate for public school rights? Answer: The very powerful teachers unions who have opposed every initiative to offer even public school parents choices to educate their kids with school vouchers. That would certainly explain why the Markey Bill doesn’t include public school children who were victims of abuse in the legislation – as the teacher’s union vigorously opposes such legislation. And who is the most powerful voice advocating for private schools? The Catholic Church, of course.
Here is another angle that might be playing a part in this. One of the main sponsors of the bill in its current form is Senator Tom Duane, who was also a chief sponsor of the Gay Marriage Bill. Here, too, there is a great deal of tension between advocates for Gay Marriage and the Church. Thus any action taken to embarrass, undermine and de-legitimize the Church in the eyes of the public, directly and profoundly pushes the Gay Marriage agenda forward as it weakens their most powerful opponent. After all, what better way to undermine the moral authority of the Church than to encourage civil lawsuits against it that will drag on for years, drain its coffers and fill the headlines of the tabloids with all its tawdry details day after day?
I suggest that if you step back a bit and survey the Markey Bill in its entirety, you will come to come to the conclusion that I have – that while the Markey Bill promotes the safety of children, it is also being used to undermine the private school movement and religious community overall far beyond the abuse issue. At a minimum, it needs to be recognized that this matter needs to be understood in a much broader context and is not the one-dimensional issue that it is portrayed to be.
Does all this mean that I am pleased with the status quo? Does it mean that I am in favor of quashing efforts to protect our children? Does it mean that we do not need to do everything in our power and leave no stone unturned to educate our parents and educators about the ravages of abuse? Do I think that the amazing, dedicated frum activists for child safety, many of whom are close friends of mine (a few of them actually ‘met’ on my website), have any part in the negative aspects of what I wrote about? No, No, No and No!!
To sum things up, I most certainly feel that change and improvement in our understanding and treatment of abuse and abusers is desperately needed – something I have loudly and passionately advocated for many years now. The Markey Bill, however, is a crude tool to accomplish that task, one that is, in my opinion, driven by a host of agendas that are diametrically opposed to ours and one, that to loosely quote our gedolim shlit”a in their carefully written and nuanced statement, has the ability to cause material damage to the mosdos haTorah that our parents and grandparents built over the past hundred years with their sweat and tears. Therefore, it is my recommendation that members of our community oppose this particular bill as it is currently written.
The Jewish Press graciously accepted my request to afford me twice the regular op-ed column size due to the nature and sensitivity of this topic. However, there is much more that I did not get to in this essay. Should you wish to, you can review the many columns I have written over the years on abuse and abuse prevention if you wish to better understand my thinking on these matters (They can all be found on my website, www.rabbihorowitz.com)
Over the next few weeks, I will lay out a vision for what I think needs to be done, internally and legislatively, to finally – after all these years, after all the drug overdoses and suicides, after all the shattered lives – make our community a safer place for our children and grandchildren.
© 2009, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, all rights reserved
Recommended reading:
The Monster Inside
Safe and Secure
Human Problems
Why Avrahom Mondrowitz Must Be Extradited
Why I Write Columns About Abuse
All Pain and No Gain
L'Maan Hashem -- What Will It Take?
Olam Hafuch Ra'isi
Could This Possibly Be True?
Deal With It
Don't Disturb the Party -- Ever Wonder What Our Children Are Thinking?
