Rabbi said it’s a ‘sin to report sex abusers to the police’
He wrote that the only exception was when there was no other way of saving the victim from abuse
AN UP-AND-COMING member of the rabbinate of the Stamford Hill-based Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations has reportedly described informing the secular authorities about suspected child abusers as a “severe sin”.
In a rabbinic paper written in spring, Dayan Paltiel Schwarcz argued that there were almost no circumstances when a Jewish abuser could be reported to the police, The Times said.
The dayan maintained that the only exception was when there is no other way of saving the victim from abuse. He argued: “Therefore, as long as it is possible to treat him [the abuser] or to prevent him from carrying out such acts through other means – as it is known that there are medical methods that are effective and that are used in the whole world for such cases – then it is clear that there is no permission to hand him over to the gentiles, which is a severe sin.”
The story appeared on the eve of Thursday’s publication of a report into religious organisations by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Dayan Schwarcz is an “exceptionally clever” junior dayan, a source in the Charedi community told the JC. But his paper appeared to be at odds with evidence given to the IICSA on behalf of the Union by Rabbi Yehudah Baumgarten.
Asked by the IICSA about mesirah – the prohibition against informing on a fellow-Jew to the secular authorities – Rabbi Baumgarten said, “Mesirah does not apply where the person being reported is causing harm to others… The rabbinate is absolutely clear.”
Reiterating Rabbi Baumgarten’s assurance, a spokesman for the UOHC said the Union’s position was that “mesirah does not apply where the person being reported is suspected of causing criminal harm to others, such as in the case of child abuse. The rabbinate is at one and absolutely clear that this is not mesirah.”
The UOHC, he added,had not been aware of “the document purported to have originated with Rabbi Schwarcz. However, having now checked the facts and indeed spoken with the rabbi, we can confirm that the document that came into the possession of The Times is merely an unaddressed, unsigned, incomplete academic draft that was sent to one person for review and for consultation regarding its standing in English law, as is the norm in academia.”