We sports fans have had our world rocked in recent weeks with the horrifying sexual abuse reports coming from the Penn State football program, and (on a smaller scale) the Syracuse basketball program. The Penn State case has been uniquely horrid since it reveals the moral weakness of someone with a public persona of great virtue, Joe Paterno, the head coach.
You can find the details of the case with a Google search, but suffice it to say that Jerry Sandusky, a long-time assistant coach at Penn State, faces more than 50 counts of sexually abusing 10 young boys over many years. The State College, PA police department investigated but did not charge Sandusky in 1998. He retired from coaching before the 1999 season, but remained closely involved with the program and often visited its facilities. Another assistant coach told Paterno specifically in 2002 that he had witnessed Sandusky abusing a child in the Penn State shower. Paterno evidently passed the information on to his athletic director, and did nothing else. Charges began to be filed in November 2011.
One cannot know all the facts from the news media, and even accused pedophiles deserve a presumption of innocence until conviction. But it seems overwhelmingly likely that we have yet another case of moral authorities sweeping male-on-male sexual abuse under the carpet, exposing additional children to life-destroying abuse, because they simply are not brave enough to deal with the horror of the truth. No need to recount the scope of the massive problem the Roman Catholic Church has had over the years. Other churches are not immune.
Plenty of people have written insightfully, in print and electronically, on this case. (Including my friend Sam Freedman, who gave this Dvar Torah at Ansche Chesed, printed in The Forward.) I would like to add a few reflections as a Jew and as a sports fan.
First, lots of sacred institutions lose their sanctity when faced with this charge. I never would have thought that Joe Paterno – who was often portrayed as the lone noble man among the raft of cheaters, liars and manipulators in college football – would actually stumble on this. It is totally implausible that he was unaware of Sandusky’s behavior. He absolutely had to have known, yet continued to let Sandusky use his connection to Penn State football to impress children. I have no words.
Regarding other sacred institutions: Jewish communities have our share of perversity and evil. It is probably neither more nor less prevalent than in other communities. There are probably a reasonably large number of cases swept under the rug because authorities choose the path of least resistance, which does make us all run crooked. No doubt, it is an enormous moral burden to take the more difficult route. I ask myself – what if I received such a complaint about a trusted friend or colleague? Wouldn’t I be inclined to accept his denials? Would I really call the police – knowing the havoc it would wreak in his life – if I had no unimpeachable evidence of a crime? Doesn’t this person deserve the benefit of the doubt? I can easily see how attractive would be the path of least resistance, eliciting promises from the accused to be good from now on…
Of course this is exactly how serial abusers find dozens or even hundreds of victims – because no one wants to do the agonizingly difficult and disruptive thing: insist that the police investigate any charge. Let law enforcement – not the accused’s friends and colleagues – determine what is credible or not. Yes, this will mean that some innocent, unfairly accused people may be shamed by unwarranted investigations. But I believe the social and moral cost of such wrongs would remain smaller than the cost to child victims of leaving real abusers univestigated.
Jewish organizations have not been immune to sexual abuse charges. A major Israeli rabbi is currently on trial for such a charge. And a number of ultra-Orthodox yeshivot have seen such charges. I imagine that in practice there is plenty of *sha-shtil*,* *or* *“hushing up” of these embarrassing charges, for the same reasons of moral lassitude found in all communities. For instance, the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel in America demands that people consult with their rabbis before calling the police. Wrong answer! (Also, of historical interest, Marc Shapiro referenced a case where a major late 19th-early 20 th century Torah scholar, R. Eliyahu Rabinowitz-Teomim, the *Aderet*, father in law of Rav Kook, reports about himself that he urged the parents of a rape victim not to report to the police, lest the Jewish community get a bad name. Ye gads!)
But as a student of Torah, I am pleased to say that in recent centuries most legal authorities say the right things. People might think charging abuse, especially against otherwise respected figures, is *lashon hara*, or slander. But people should remember that the leading authority on the laws of slander, Rabbi Israel Meir HaKohen, the *Hafetz Hayim*, taught that in some circumstances reporting painful news publically is the only responsible course. One must be sure that the information is true, and that one’s motives are pure, among other conditions. But when reporting will lead to the public good, it may be necessary to reveal [*Hafetz Hayim*10.2]. In our day, the major ultra-Orthodox leader R. Shalom Yosef Elyashiv has urged people to turn to the police when they are certain a crime has been committed [in a letter written in 2004, printed in the journal * Yeshurun*, 2005, p. 641]. Yeshiva University teachers have taken the same route – see for instance R. Herschel Schachter’s audio shiur “Should I Call the Police .”
A relatively early relevant case: In 19th century Galicia, Rabbi Shaul Nathanson of Lemberg (=Lvov) wrote of a case that could have happened yesterday [*Shoel u-Meshiv* 1st edition 1.185]. In 1853 a school teacher in a smaller town was accused of having intercourse with young boys. So of course … he alleged that the accusers were manipulated by his enemies and part of a vast conspiracy against him, and he promised never to sleep in beds with children anymore and he promised to be good. So they sent him to Lvov where he got another job as a teacher. When the new employers heard of the old accusation, they inquired of the first court who told them that there was no proof of anything, so they should trust the teacher. But who could have foreseen what came next…? A few years later a new group of teenage boys in Lvov came forward to say that the teacher had sexually abused them when they were children. The Rabbi ruled that even though children’s testimony has no formal legal standing in Jewish law, it should be powerful and trustworthy enough to prevent someone from working with kids. An important observation: certain charges, by their natures, have to be treated with a different level of suspicion.
The most relevant mitzvah here is *lo taamod al dam re’echa*, do not stand idly by when your neighbor is in danger [Leviticus 19.16]. About this the Sages said [Sanhedrin 73a]: “How do you know that if you see someone about to kill another that you must rescue the victim, even at the cost of the pursuer’s life? From the verse, Do not stand idly by when your neighbor is in danger.” Similarly, the Talmud teaches, one should use any means necessary to rescue people from rape, drowning, attack by criminals or attacks by animals. I cannot possibly imagine a more applicable case of defending *dam re’echa*, your neighbor’s blood, than stopping a child abuser by telling the truth.
Finally, a personal memory: I played sports in middle and high school, in my hometown of Louisville, KY, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. I have only great memories of these activities (except for losing a lot). When I was in high school, a kid I had known incidentally through middle school football killed himself with a shotgun. I did not know him beyond football, and had no personal contact with him at all, so I have no idea what prompted his death. But a couple of years later still, one of the coaches of those teams went to jail for sexually abusing boys. (I had ridden alone in cars with that man, but was never harmed.) I always wondered if there was a connection between those crimes and that suicide. I tried unsuccessfully to find an account of either case through Google. Since I have no additional data, and am merely speculating, I’ll omit both of their names from this post. Maybe there is no link. But I think of that poor boy, and wonder who knew about the coach’s crimes. May God show us mercy.
- Nedarim, Daf 79 - January 12, 2023
- Nedarim, Daf 78 - January 11, 2023
- Nedarim, Daf 77 - January 10, 2023