The Victims' Lament - Sexual abuse in the community is all too
By Faygie Levy, Jewish Exponent Staff
Jewish Exponent - December 19, 2002
(NAME REMOVED) was 11 years old when it happened.
A
student at the Chisuk Emuna Congregation's Hebrew school in Harrisburg,
she had lagged behind her classmates during a break between lessons.
That's when she says the synagogue's cantor, Philip Wittlin, "came up
behind me and did that gross old-man thing."
(Name
Removed) defines that behavior as Wittlin touching her breasts, one
time, during that afternoon a decade ago. In August 2001, about a month
after Wittlin was arrested for abusing minors, (Name Removed) approached
the district attorney in Dauphin County, where she grew up and where
her family still resides, and recounted the incident.
At 21, (Name Removed) is still troubled by the encounter, saying, "I have a big problems trusting men."
She is not alone.
Today,
you can't pick up a newspaper or turn on a television station without
hearing about the latest sexual-abuse claim within the Catholic Church.
Although the known number of cases of child sexual abuse by cantors and
rabbis is presumed to be nowhere near that of priests and other
clergymen right now, even a single instance is a problem for the Jewish
community.
The
victims of abuse have been both boys and girls, and their attackers are
often trusted members of the community who have known the children's
families for years. Abuse has occurred in synagogues and day schools,
places where families look for the installation of Jewish ethics and
values, places where people should feel safe.
Those
who prey on children, say the experts, often build up a relationship
with the child, gaining his or her trust before making a move.
"Whether
the child is an alter boy or a girl in Sunday school, who loves and
respects the person in authority, the scene is set, the dynamic is
there. That's so with any religion," says Wendy Demchick-Alloy, an
assistant district attorney in Montgomery County who prosecuted many
such crimes over the years. "You inherently want to respect and put
trust and faith in your religious leaders."
She
goes on to explain that sexual assault of children "is, as disgusting
as it sounds, a very quiet event committed by a very warped person and
doesn't leave physical evidence." What they do leave behind, she says,
are "devastating emotional scars."
Rabbi Juda Mintz pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child pornography.
"These
cases often are based on a dynamic of authority, power and trust that's
violated in the deepest way," explains Demchick-Alloy.
Technically,
the words "sexual abuse" as defined in Pennsylvania's crimes code deal
with criminality of making or disseminating photos, videos, pictures and
films of children engaging in sexual acts. Lay people often use that
term interchangeably with what the crimes code calls "sexual offenses,"
the actual criminal act ranging from indecent exposure to sexual contact
and intercourse.
Among the most recent cases involving rabbis or cantors are:
·Cantor
Philip H. Wittlin, formerly of Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg,
Pa., pleaded guilty on Feb. 12 to a number of charges, including five
counts each of corruption of minors and two counts of aggravated
indecent assault. His sentencing hearing earlier this month will be
continued next month.
Rabbi
Juda Mintz, formerly of Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph
Township, N.J., pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 to possessing child
pornography and is expected to be sentenced on June 12. He faces up to
five years in prison.
Rabbi
Richard M. Marcovitz, religious leader of Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma
City, was charged Feb. 26 with numerous counts of indecent or lewd acts
with minors, as well as sexual battery. The charges stem from
allegations by two students and two adult employees at the Oklahoma City
Jewish Community Day School, which is housed in the synagogue.
Cantor
Howard Nevison, of Temple Emanu-El in New York, was arrested Feb. 20 by
Lower Merion Police after his nephew told authorities that Nevison had
sexually abused him from the time he was 3 until he was 7.
Facing the problem
For
all the known cases - these are just a few - those involved in the
issue say other perpetrators are probably out there, and that the Jewish
community has yet to step forward and deal with the problem head-on.
"It's
not something we ever thought could happen here, and now we realize it
is happening," says Rabbi Abraham Twersky, a Pittsburgh-area
psychiatrist who founded the Gateways Rehabilitation Center, a drug- and
substance-abuse center, in Aliquippa, Pa.
Twersky,
who was consulted on a number of cases involving sexual abuse by
religious leaders, is credited in part with bringing social issues like
domestic violence and drug abuse to the forefront of Orthodox Judaism.
"In
English, you say it's a shame, it's an embarrassment, a disgrace," but
in Hebrew, Twersky says, "you would use the word shandah, the most
disgrace possible. And the Jewish community has always been careful not
to have a shandah. ... We're just reluctant to accept that these
problems are within us."
Rabbi
Mark Dratch, religious leader of Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Conn., who
wrote about the issue for the Rabbinical Council of America, and who
sits on the Jewish advisory committee for the Center for the Prevention
of Sexual and Domestic Violence, agrees. "My impression is the lack of
the Jewish community's ability or desire to deal with these issues is
based not on halachic grounds, but on denial, on the willingness to deal
with difficult situations and believe these kinds of allegations."
But,
he continues, when people use halachah (Jewish laws), such as the
obligation against lashon hara, or speaking bad about another, to
justify their actions in keeping silent or not turning in an alleged
abuser, "that's an abuse of the halachic system itself."
Charlotte
Schwab, Ph.D., a Florida-based psychotherapist who has been counseling
victims of sexual abuse for 10 years, knows firsthand the devastation
such abuse can cause. At one time, she was married to a New York rabbi
who was accused of such crimes. Though now divorced from him, she
acknowledges that it has led to her current work.
The victims of sexual abuse by rabbis or cantors, explains Schwab, "feel worthless, shamed, that it's somehow their fault."
Often,
she says, "they don't dare tell anybody. They hide themselves, and it
affects their lives in many ways - in their ability to function, to take
care of their families."
The victims, according to Schwab, "often never recover. It's very traumatic."
And
like people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, these
victims "relive the experience" in their minds over and over again, even
through adulthood, she insists.
(Name
Removed), one of Philip Wittlin's victims, tried to tell her family
years ago what the cantor had done, but at the time believed somehow
that "it was my fault." Instead, she told her parents that he had
caressed not her private parts, but her back.
Her stepmother, (Name Removed), recalls that Wittlin is "a touchy-feely kind of guy, and at the time, "we brushed it off."
But
when victims do step forward, they are often the ones put on trial, not
necessarily in the criminal courts, but in the court of public opinion.
"They
are often accused of being troublemakers, or making it up or wanting
revenge," says Schwab, adding, "that's preposterous, because ... who'd
want to go make that up?"
Says
Dratch: "There needs to be a lot of support for people coming forward,
so they find the personal support, the congregational support, so they
are not victimized a second time."
But,
he acknowledges, "it's hard because many times an alleged perpetrator
is known by the community, and they have a hard time accepting the
accusation against him. And they may be themselves in a state of
denial."
"The
real tragedy of all of this," adds Schwab, "is the cover-up and denial
by spokespeople of [religious] denominations who say this doesn't
exist."
Educating the community
For
those who have been abused by rabbis or cantors, the abuse can
sometimes overshadow any feelings they have for Judaism, according to
Schwab. Some, she says, leave the religion and their communities. "I try
to help them see that there are some safe places, and even some male
rabbis who are trying to change things," says Schwab.
Many
believe that it is time for a sea change to occur in the way the Jewish
community deals with the issue. "We need to be more aggressive with
education, and while we're concerned with internally issues of tzinnus
[`modesty'] or shandah," says Dratch, "we cannot sacrifice the safety
and well-being of our children.
"There
needs to be more open discussions in the schools, shuls and families
with regard to this issue," he continues. "And, I think, there needs to
be more of a grass-roots effort" to address it and combat it.
"If
there's a situation where [communal] leaders are negligent in their
leadership, then lay people need to step forward and change the facts on
the ground on how the issue is discussed or addressed."
To
be sure, some steps are being taken to educate upcoming rabbis and
cantors about appropriate behavior and how to deal with the issue of
sexual abuse by religious leaders when it is brought to their attention.
The education, some say, is also to help cantors and rabbis avoid being
in a position where false allegations can occur.
The
Cantors Assembly of the Conservative movement, for example, issued
guidelines last year in the form of a letter to members. According to
Stephen Stein, the group's executive vice president, those
recommendations include having parents sit in on Bar/Bat Mitzvah lessons
or having another child in the room. Cantors should also sit across,
not next to, the child. The group also advises cantors to avoid any
physical contact with kids.
Rabbinic
movements have codes of ethics that members are expected to abide by,
but so far none are believed to have issued such in-depth guidelines.
The
religious movements say they address the issue at conferences or in
classes at the rabbinical schools. Several rabbinical groups mentioned
that candidates must pass, at the very least, one interview and have
several letters of recommendations, which they say help weed out
potentially troublesome candidates.
Even
with the most rigorous interview and screening processes, abusers can
make it through the system, some say. The question then becomes what to
do with them.
The
experts say that a thorough and immediate investigation must be
conducted into any claim of abuse against a child, no matter what the
circumstances.
That's
something that did not happen in the case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a
former leader of the National Council of Synagogue Youth. Though rumors
and allegations persisted for years about possible sexual misconduct
with minors, no one - including the Orthodox Union, which oversees the
youth group - investigated until a story appeared in The New York Jewish
Week.
Likewise,
according to members of Harrisburg's Jewish community, whispers of
sexual-abuse allegations against Philip Wittlin date back at least 10
years.
Dratch
hits the point home to the community in a single, albeit frightening,
sentence: "Most pedophiles do not have one victim, they have many
victims, and unless they are taken out of circulation, they will not be
stopped."
No Remorse on Accuser's Part, as Ex-Cantor Has His Day in Court.
HARRISBURG, Pa.
Inside
the cavernous, poorly lit courtroom, the tension was palpable on May 16
as victims of sexual abuse gathered for the sentencing of their
attacker, Philip H. Wittlin, formerly a cantor at Chisuk Emuna
Congregation in Harrisburg.
Wittlin
had pleaded guilty in February to a number of charges, including two
counts of aggravated indecent assault and five counts of corruption of
minors.
The
charges were based on the abuse of two girls, but authorities say
Wittlin victimized others, though the statue of limitations had run out
on those crimes. At the time of the abuse, the victims were under 18 and
affiliated with the congregation.
Some
of Wittlin's older victims, including (Name Removed), 21, were on hand
to lend moral support to the two teens who had reported the abuse that
led to the former cantor's arrest.
Wittlin's
victims and their supporters filled the middle four rows of benches
behind the prosecutor's desk. They sat beside family members who
occasionally would lean over and whisper in their ears, or touch them on
the shoulder for encouragement.
At
one point, a male relative of one of the young girls appeared to ask a
woman with the district attorney's office whether Wittlin would just
walk into court. The official put her hands by her waist, moved them
close together and mouthed the words, "in handcuffs."
Indeed, when Wittlin entered the court nearly an hour later, he was shackled.
A
stocky man with a beard, receding hairline and thick, black-rimmed
glasses, the 56-year-old Wittlin didn't glance at his accusers as he
entered the courtroom.
The
prosecutor, Kimberly Alfieri, led the sentencing hearing with testimony
by Dr. Barry Zakireh, a licensed psychologist and a member of the
sexual-offenders' assessment board who testified about Wittlin's
actions.
Zakireh noted that when questioned by police, Wittlin said that he may have touched the victims, but that it was "accidental."
According
to the psychologist, "that suggests that he does not consider himself
guilty of intending to commit sexual [assault]. It tells me he does not
have much remorse or empathy toward the victim."
He
also noted that over the years, Wittlin's actions escalated from
touching young girls inappropriately to actual "penetration."
Wittlin,
Zakireh testified, "meets the criteria for a sexually violent predator,
... considering only the two cases of which he's charged. If you
consider the other victims that have since come forward, it would only
strengthen that case."
Looking
at the "number of times abuse occurred against the two victims," said
Zakireh, you see a "deliberate, intentional pattern in which [Wittlin]
planned his offenses."
Both
the prosecutor and the defense attorney are allowed to call witnesses
during the sentencing hearing to help the judge weigh the case and dole
out an appropriate punishment. The proceedings ended in the middle of
the prosecutor's presentation.
The
hearing is expected to resume on June 14, when the prosecution will
call additional witnesses to make statements, including (Name Removed)
and other of Wittlin's victims. To date, the defense has no witnesses
listed to speak on Wittlin's behalf.
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