I 'spose this would just fly under the radar in most cases, but this situation is a FEMALE principal sexually assaulting female students…at an ultra-orthodox Jewish private school here in Melbourne. :eek:
It’s mind boggling on all sorts of levels, but raises questions for me about the virtue of closed communities and protecting children from harm.
As was mentioned in the article, the kids in the Melbourne Adass are not exposed to anything in the big, wide world outside. No TV, no interaction with the opposite sex after age 8, and no interaction with people outside the community. ‘Normal’ kids tend to know when activities perpetrated against them are wrong. It would seem for the victims in this scenario that a) they didn’t necessarily know that what the principal did was not only immoral but illegal, and b) who the hell would they tell? The woman, Malka Leifer was only second in the spiritual heirarchy to the Rabbi in that community. It was only some dramatic behaviour changes in one of the girls that prompted the parent to seek counselling for her and then it all came out in the wash.
On top of all of that, this comment blew my mind totally.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I’ve just got no words. Keeping the ‘secret’ is to help protect the marriageability stakes of your girl-child?? Wot?? It’s secrets that allowed this shit to happen in the first place you idiot/s. It’s all very well to build walls to keep the evil influences outside, but walls have the effect of keeping the bad and noxious in your community INSIDE as well. Sometimes you need a breath of fresh air, and it sounds like you might be getting one in the near future, although not under the circumstances you might have wished Adass folk.
As a non-Jew who lives on Glen Eira Rd, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Kiddies in various types of Jewish garb and other Jewish and non-Jewish kiddies play along the pavement. Tzitzits in flight as applicable. There are always adults keeping an eye out, including me. It’s a pedestrianised inner suburban neighbourhood. It’s partly that because of the prevalence of Red Sea pedestrians. It’s good.
Sure there are people who don’t mix. An Australian-born friend of ours we met through mothers’ group had never been in a non-Jewish person’s house until he came over. Fortunately it wasn’t as hot as it was today, because he wouldn’t have been able to have a glass of water at our joint. The Adass-frequented grocery doesn’t look remotely welcoming - but I can already buy umpteen varieties of wafers at any shop around here. And Yumi’s seafood - owned by Adass folks - is excellent, charming and open to non-adherent customers and staff. I recently ran into a lass from behind the counter there who’d popped into the Moldavian deli a couple of doors up for a ham and cheese sandwich as high-holiday light relief.
I dunno about this story. It just seems to me a typical story of this type: a person who is in a trusted position allegedly turns out to be a predator. Due to the alleged predator’s position of power and the exploitation of taboos sex criminals tend to use, her alleged victims find it hard to tell their stories.
As for the “closed community” aspect, it doesn’t sound like there’s been an attempt to hush things up. Certainly not a successful one - within 10 days, the board’s apparently investigated, sacked the woman and the story’s on the front page of a major city daily paper. The families of the alleged victims feel betrayed and want to protect their children.
I’m not knocking you for posting this kam* - I’ve been thinking about it all day - but on reflection it mostly seems a pretty typical story of this type, only with people who dress funny and don’t mix much.
Maybe there’s some special irony here, but I doubt it. It’s nearly Shabbat by now in the US, so our hopes of getting someone who knows what they’re on about are slim, but it seems to me that these folks believe that they can partially isolate themselves from the evils of the world by having little to do with others. I don’t think they think that the people within their world are beyond evil - just that certain extraneous stuff which is not useful and is potentially bad can be excluded.
*[sub]Did you follow up that link I posted at GDope, btw?[/sub]