Presence

My money is on Marvin's comment he summed up what I saw as a key discrepancy in the article. (I also think it shows a bias that the Jewish Times chooses to act as judge and jury on these allegations)

I think we all need to stop looking for reasons to heap blame on Phil Jacobs while looking for excuses to not to want to believe the gravity of the devastation left behind.Yes in America we are innocent until proven guilty and alleged is the proper way to protect the innocent. We must be sensitive why that term gets missed at times. In this case, if I sat in a room with devastated adults all from different time periods and all tell the same exact story and the "alledged" perpetrator is no longer among us to interview him so that the word alledged can be legally changed to guilty of the crime, that term can easily be missed. It is time to look at the obvious and stop blaming the messenger for devastating crimes perpetrated on innocent young men. I am sure those who knew rabbi Shapiro and I was one, and they do not want to believe this of him, if any of these victims were relatives of theirs, they would not be so quick to look to blame the messenger for any gaffes they are so eager to find.

I think we all need to stop looking for reasons to heap blame on Phil Jacobs while looking for excuses to not to want to believe the gravity of the devastation left behind.Yes in America we are innocent until proven guilty and alleged is the proper way to protect the innocent. We must be sensitive why that term gets missed at times. In this case, if I sat in a room with devastated adults all from different time periods and all tell the same exact story and the "alledged" perpetrator is no longer among us to interview him so that the word alledged can be legally changed to guilty of the crime, that term can easily be missed. It is time to look at the obvious and stop blaming the messenger for devastating crimes perpetrated on innocent young men. I am sure those who knew rabbi Shapiro and I was one, and they do not want to believe this of him, if any of these victims were relatives of theirs, they would not be so quick to look to blame the messenger for any gaffes they are so eager to find.

Anon (10:43)

Denial and naivite, couched in the presumption of innocence (the American way, dan l'kaf zechus, bla bla bla), is what made this such a mess in the first place. Give me a break! And if you want to call out the BJT for being the "judge and jury" on this, those in glass houses should not be throwing stones. The cover-ups were obviously known to some leaders in the community who took it upon themselves not only to be "the judge and jury" over these years--but to play armchair Psychologists as well.

Get with the program and read the VH's letter. The abuse DID happen (obviously no one is disputing that), key people knew about it, they screwed up, and this is what they/we are left to deal with.

Sure, people can cancel their subscriptions to the BJT. But, that won't make any past, present, and future problems go away.

Here's another letter that appeared:

T.A. Responds
Editor:
We are profoundly saddened by recent reports of sexual abuse occuring decades ago in our schoo. We deeply empathize with anyone who has suffered this painful form of abuse.
The administration and leadership of YCC-TA is totally committed to providing a safe and appropriate environment for all of our students and making sure that tragedies of this nature never happen again. The school has established policies and procedures - which we continue to refine - to address this critical issue, and we will provide continuing education on this very impportant subject to our students, faculty, and parent body.
Board of Directors
Yeshiva Chafetz Chaim - Talmudical Academy
Dr. Joael Pleeter, Chairman.

"My money is on Marvin's comment he summed up what I saw as a key discrepancy in the article. (I also think it shows a bias that the Jewish Times chooses to act as judge and jury on these allegations)"

If you do original investigation, and it's clear that Phil did, and you feel confident of your conclusion, you don't use alleged. If you have some new evidence proving that the folks in the article are liars, please bring it. Otherwise, I don't think there's much room for doubt.

As for TA's letter: weak, but expected.

I think TA's response has been overwhelmingly positive; I hope to give more information on this in the future, but I think they've done a comendable job in response to what's going on.

Bottom Line:

If not for the BJT article there would never have been a statement issued by the VH. Rabbis would never have spoken about sexual abuse from the pulpit.

We owe Phil a debt of gratitude - it took a tremendous amount of courage to print the article and solely because of him, he has effected change in our community.

As we can see from the VH statement and their admission of mishandling these type of cases in the past (ES being one of them), because of the JT's article,
the VH will be much more diligent and responsible when handling these situations. Unfortunately, there are still too many of these situations happening RIGHT NOW on which immediate action is needed.

Is the case of Rabbi Shapiro an example of mishandling? How many of you remember him or all you all newcomers? To the best of my recollection and others who were here then there were no whispers. No coverup. This wasn't an issue that people said "no it couldn't be him." I don't think anyone knew.
For Phil Jacobs to presume that the family knew and didn't intervene is baseless. His implication at his blog is that he blames the families for not intervening is presumptuous in the extreme.

"Is the case of Rabbi Shapiro an example of mishandling? How many of you remember him or all you all newcomers? To the best of my recollection and others who were here then there were no whispers. No coverup. This wasn't an issue that people said "no it couldn't be him." I don't think anyone knew."

Not true. Accusations have been floating around for a while. The problem was, they were quashed so quickly and effectively in the community that it only gained traction online - which rendered it immediately suspect in most eyes.

is T.A. going to take down the big picture and plaque they have up for Ephraim Shapiro?

nyfunnyman - What large picture and plaque? Where is it currently located? I go to TA quite a bit and must have missed it. Or just not go to the office where they're located.

DMZ - floating around when? When he was still alive?
I have a reason to believe that the family had no idea when he was alive. (And for a time after.)
And like I said neither I nor anyone I've talked to remember charges floating around during his lifetime (and these include some TA insiders.)

"And like I said neither I nor anyone I've talked to remember charges floating around during his lifetime (and these include some TA insiders.)"

I meant after his passing. But then again, I never said during his life, either. That was you. :)

Greg: that letter looked pretty weak to me. Just vague "oh, we'll fix it" stuff. If you've got more info, post it up.