by Yaacov Behrman – Forward
Forcing rabbis to report abuse allegations, as Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes wants, may intimidate families into staying quiet.
All competent rabbinic authorities are in agreement that cases of child abuse should be reported to law enforcement. Agudath Israel of America nevertheless requires parents to obtain rabbinic permission before reporting abuse to authorities. Although in the overwhelming majority of cases, abuse allegations turn out to be accurate, there has been a minority of cases in which innocent individuals were wrongly charged with abuse crimes. These individuals were vindicated only after lengthy proceedings. Therefore, some rabbis feel that in a case where there are no witnesses to the abuse and there is only one victim, who is a minor, a rabbi should assess the validity of the allegations before the accusations are brought to the police.