We cannot condone sex abuse cover-ups
RABBI GRONER was in a supreme position of trust in the community. It is precisely because of this position that he should have reported child abuse to the authorities.
Instead, he did not, thinking an inside job would do better, perhaps to salvage the community’s reputation.
Unfortunately, the opposite is the truth. The Jewish community cannot afford to appear to condone the reputation of sex abuse cover-ups. No matter how noble the intentions of rabbinic leaders to protect their institutions, nothing can take priority over the enduring and indescribable pain suffered by the victims of abuse.
Transparency and justice are required by the Torah to ensure that such tragedies do not reoccur.
It is the cry of the helpless victim that God hears, not the conventions of rabbis in accolades of each other.
Preventing future tragedies and restoring faith in the professional management of our communities should have been the central theme of the tenth anniversary of his death.
It would not have been an unpleasant criticism of his leadership — that is implicit in public court records for all to inspect. Instead, it would have been an appropriate way of making amends to the those in his charge whom he had failed.
Cover-ups reminiscent of child abuse in the Catholic Church and in the post-Gary Glitter era across the entertainment industry should serve as a sobering warning to us, the Jewish people, that we should be seen to lead the mission to combat abuse and not grant a hechsher to failure to report.
Such approbation sets a dangerous precedent for those less illustrious than Rabbi Groner, who could persist in the frightful myth and negligent pastoral attitude that paedophilia can be cured by laymen and go unreported to the relevant authorities.
This mission to protect the young and vulnerable should begin in our own communities as a mark of our moral strength and fidelity to Torah. Ariel Abel is rabbi at Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool