Death Threats Against R' Aharon Lichtenstein

Update: Entire Hebrew transcript of R' Aharon's lecture: here Having read through it, I highly suggest you take the time to read it as well (if your Hebrew is up to par). R' Aharon painfully recounts the details of this breaking story, and how we arrived at the current situation. Worth reading. --Jameel

YNET (translated from the Hebrew), rotter and ynetnews report:

In an emotional lecture to his students, often breaking into tears, R' Aharon Lichtenstein announced that he has received death threats by a student of R' Motti Elon in retaliation for his participating in the Takana forum which labeled R' Motti as a "dangerous person."

"This is the reward we received after hours of meetings with important people," he lamented. "This isn't one individual case [of abuse], I wish it were only one individual case. Sometimes, one needs to close the gemara and deal with this important issue."

In response to allegations of of the harsh treatment towards R' Motti, R' Lichtenstein said: "[R' Motti was Blackmailed?] Blackmail? What Blackmail? Who received any benefit from this [Takana report]? [It only caused us] only severe pain and suffering"

"The incidents accumulated, but the outcry isn't over that. We would not have gone with that to the media. The issue was to the point -- and people were being hurt. There were people whose families were seriously hurt. People were suffering mental anguish. The dam started to leak in terms of the confidentiality surrounding the issue -- when information started leaking to the media. There was a sword hanging over our heads, when would the news leak out."

We made the decision to publicize the events a week ago. The Takana forum warned R' Elon, and then another abuse was brought to the attention of the Takana forum, which was defined as "extremely serious."

"Everything was done with a heavy heart, believe me, I know what a blow this is to him and his family; his wife is broken and exhausted, yet we had to do it [publicize the warning"].

In related news -- the JPost covers more of this agonizing story:

Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, head of the Petah Tikva Hesder Yeshiva and a member of the rabbinical forum that works to prevent sexual harassment in the national-religious sector, said on Wednesday that Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon's actions were "far worse than sexual harassment."

Elon admitted to the acts in a meeting with Takana Forum members, Sherlo told Army Radio, adding that the rabbi's confession is documented in the forum's protocol.

Sherlo went on to stress that even if what happened between the rabbi and his students was consensual, it was wrong for Elon to exploit his "spiritual authority" for this purpose.

Since the accusations against Rabbi Elon were made public, Sherlo said, 10 other students of the rabbi had filed complaints against him to the forum.

Elon has denied all of the allegations against him and said they derived from one “seriously disturbed” student, adding that the charges constituted “a blood libel, but I am happy that the truth is beginning to emerge."

However, Takana Chairman Yehudit Shilat told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that reports claiming the allegations against Elon were solely the result of a single disgruntled student or someone with a personal vendetta against the rabbi were “absolutely false.”

Shilat, who said she hadn’t slept over the past 55 hours, would not comment on the number of complaints and the severity of them, saying the organization still needed more time to determine how many of them have any basis.

According to a statement posted on Takana’s Web site Wednesday, the group was reluctant to publicize the matter in order to “protect the complainants.”

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Nothing changes

by Lurker

If Motti Elon's claims are to be believed, then they directly imply the following:

1. The members of the Takana committee that has been handling his case -- which include such diverse and distinguished individuals as R. Yaakov Ariel, R. Aharon Lichtenstein, R. Avi Gisser, Rabbanit Yehudit Shilat, R. Elyakim Levanon, R. Yuval Cherlow, and Prof. Yedidya Stern -- are all involved in a giant malicious conspiracy to "blackmail" Elon (his words).
   
   
2. Because of nothing more than a lone, unsubstantiated allegation from one single "seriously disturbed" individual, Elon agreed to resign as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKotel, abandon all rabbinic duties, withdraw from public life, move out of Jerusalem, and go went into self-imposed "exile" in a yishuv up north.

Both of these propositions are stupendously preposterous beyond belief. Only a very naive fool could possibly take either one seriously.

The great irony here is that while Elon would have us believe that the members of Takana are engaged in a giant conspiracy to destroy him, the truth seems to be the exact opposite: The members of Takana engaged in a giant conspiracy to protect him. Rather than go public with the information they had four years ago, Takana foolishly opted to keep the truth a secret, so as not to air the dati leumi community's dirty laundry in public. To that end, they made a "deal" with Elon, in which they promised to keep things under wraps, in exchange for Elon moving to some outlying yishuv, and promising to "be good" from now on. In making this reprehensible "deal", Takana became guilty of criminal negligence. Why are Elon's new victims up north less worthy of protection than the ones in the Jerusalem area?! Because they are less likely to be heard or noticed? Why were they willing to take the risk of assuming that Elon -- whom they already recognized as a repeat sex offender and a liar -- would keep his word, instead of continuing to abuse people? In the privacy of the outlying yishuv that Elon fled to, far away from from the intense spotlight of Takana in the center of the country, it was certainly much easier for Elon to continue his predatory behavior. And now we know that he did exactly that.

By engaging in this sort of "not in my backyard" cover-up, the members of Takana showed that they have learned nothing whatsoever from the many similar cases of rabbinic sexual abuse that have preceeded this one. Habitual sexual predators always repeat their pathological behavior. The people who bear the brunt of the responsibility for Elon's victims over the last four years are the committee members themselves.

Not at all surprsingly, other victims are now starting to come out with their stories:

New harassment claims against Rabbi Elon

As someone who closely followed the Baruch Lanner scandal for two decades, I find this entire scandal nauseatingly familiar:

• The shameful cover-up to protect the sexual predator and the community.
  
  
• The inevitable recidivism of the predator.
  
  
• The publicization of the facts only after the cancer has metasasized into something too outrageous to ignore.
  
  
• The victims who finally find the courage to speak up only after (and because) the scandal has become public knowledge.
  
  
• The cruel demonization of the predator's hapless victims.
  
  
• The crowds of blind groupies living in group denial, ready to defend the predator regardless of the facts or the cost for future victims.

It's the same story every single time -- Lanner, Kolko, Weinberg, Gafni, et al. -- and now Elon.

The members of Takana thought that if they tried to handle the problem "quietly", then it would just "go away". This, in spite of the fact that this irresponsible approach has never worked, and has proven itself a tragic failure repeatedly. The end is always the same. The Takana members bear no less guilt than Elon himself.

It's like reliving the same awful horror movie over and over again.


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Allegations rock Religious National / Modern Orthodox

What is the difference between the "Chareidi" (Ultra-Orthodox) world and the "Dati" (Religious nationalist and/or Modern Orthodox and/or centrist religious) world?

Strangely, due to this blog, many people have been approaching me lately and discussing it; very passionately.

One said; The Chareidi world has "Kavod HaTorah" (respect for the Torah). No self respecting Chariedi would ever write on a blog post or Chareidi newspaper, an article questioning the Torah leaders of the generation, such as R' Elyashiv. Despite mass non-adherence to some of the halachik rulings of these leaders, such as having internet at home, using a Shabbat elevator, "Chareidim" would never openly criticize them, as you do on your blog... (he was referring to my comments on R' Aviner and Srugim).

Of course, this applies to criticizing their own leaders; there are currently dozens of inter-sect fights going on within the Chareidi world; from Ger to Chabad to Satmar to Shas. If human leaders are above reproach due to "Kavod HaTorah" then I guess I'm not Chareidi.

The reason I bring this background item up, is that yesterday at 8 PM, Israel's Channel 2 TV news dropped a bombshell on the religious community in Israel. One of the religious nationalist leaders, R' Mordechai "Motti" Elon was accused of "implicit sexual misconduct" by an organization called "Takana."

I was driving home when I heard the news via a simultaneous TV broadcast, on IDF radio and many questions came to mind.

Who is the Takana organization? Was this a smear campaign? Is there any truth to this? Overall, the news was very depressing.

The story evolved as follows (its reported the same way on all the news sites...here's the JPost's rendition:

A rabbinical forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment within the national-religious sector issued an announcement Monday warning the public of prominent national-religious Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon, who allegedly committed “acts in contradiction to the values of sanctity and morals.”

According to Takana, after receiving complaints about Elon’s implicit sexual misconduct, the forum demanded of Elon to end all public activity, step down from any educational and managerial positions and cease conducting one-on-one counseling. The forum, composed of prominent national-religious rabbis and legal experts, refrained from making the affair pubic till this point in time in order to preserve the dignity of the complainants and the alleged perpetrator, the announcement said.

The rabbi had relocated from Jerusalem to the northern Moshava Migdal some four years ago, citing health reasons as the reason for the unexpected move.

However, the forum recently learned that Elon didn’t uphold all of the terms he committed to, the announcement said, and therefore was forced to air the story in order to “safeguard the public and prevent transgression.”

The public statement from Takana is here, on their website. Within an hour, R' Motti Elon issued a statement that this was a case of "extortion"...and a press conference would be forthcoming. On the radio this morning, R' Motti's sister in law, Emuna Elon defended him on the radio:

"Since when does someone go to this forum, whoever they are. Who appointed them, and made them judges over the public? This is a modern country -- and we have respectable police and courts to handle allegations"

I'm sorry, but I find this statement rather cynical and populistic for many reasons.

I looked at the "Takana" organization -- it is perhaps one of the most wide reaching groups that span the spectrum of the religious-nationalist/modern orthodox community in Israel. Its forum is comprised of the following:

R' Yaakov Ariel, R' Aharon Lichtenstein, R' Eitzan Eisman, R' Shlomo ben Eliyahu, R' Baruch Gigi, R' Avi Gisser, R' Tzefanya Drori, Dr. Aviad Cohen, Dr. Yaakov Chaba, R' Elyakim Livanon, R' Benny Lehman, R' David Stav, R' Gabi Kadosh, R' Elyashiv Knohal, R' Zev Karov, R' Shlomo Riskin, Professor Yedidya Stern, R' Yuval Sherlo, R' Yehoshua Shapira.

Mrs. Efrat Brom, Rabbanit Yaffa Gisser, Mrs. Debby Gross, Rabbanit Chana Henkin, Eilat Weider Cohen,Dr. Shulamit Lehman, Mrs. Tami Samet, Rabbanit Malka Petrokovsky, Rabbanit Gila Rosen, Attorney Dorit Rosenfeld, Rabbanit Yehudit Shilat, Attorney Riki Shapira.

This forum is far from being monolithic in outlook and hashkafa; they are so varied that to get them all to agree on a single issue would imply lack of a personal or political vendetta against anyone.

Does Emuna Elon really think that her brother in law would be best served by the accusers going straight to the police (and the media)? This forum seems to have tried to settle the matter as quietly as possible, yet when the agreement was not upheld, the Takana forum issued their statement.

Do Benny and Emuna Elon really have full faith in Israel's legal system? Their niece, Margalit Har-Shefi was tormented by Israel's legal system, charged with failure to report the intentions of Yigal Amir's plot to kill PM Yitzchak Rabin. She was tried, found guilty, served 6 months of jail time, is not allowed to practice law due to the crime she was accused of, and she has been maligned and outcast by Israel's society. All of this, despite the head of the Shin Bet admitting years later, "Har-Shefi did not know that Yigal Amir wanted to murder the Prime Minister," MK Ayalon said. "I know this from intelligence and was head of the intelligence agency." I don't think that Emuna and Benny honestly put their full faith in the system.

So what's the bottom line?

I don't put my trust in the police, or Israel's judiciary. I don't put my trust is a Bet Din either.

Maybe the best we can hope for is a large pluralistic group of respected rabbanim, lawyers, professional and Jewish leaders.

There are no guarantees, but everything else has failed so far. Maybe this Takana organization is a good first step...and as they indicated, they went public when there was no alternative.

This is far better than the Chareidi world which hushes things up, or the Lanner bet-din which also refused to act.

In both of these cases, only going to the police helped. I wonder if the same should have been the case here.

Updates as this story unfolds...


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