Two stories from this week: “Ex-Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger indicted on corruption.” “Senior rabbi of Sydney yeshiva, Rabbi Yossi Feldman, resigns over testimony on sexual abuse.”
On the corruption front, the charges against the former chief rabbi include fraud, money laundering, profiting from donations to charitable causes and taking $2.6 million in bribes to sway his opinion on matters he decided as chief rabbi, such as conversions to Judaism and rabbinic appointments; as well as ties with business moguls in exchange for personal gain.
On the testimony front, the resignation-causing comments included: It was not appropriate for victims of sexual abuse to go to the police if offenses took place decades prior; and the law should be lenient on pedophiles who had not offended for two decades and had repented.
Why did we not hear of such developments in the rabbinate decades ago? Did they not happen? Were they covered up? Did journalists feel they were beyond their bailiwick?
We don’t know the answer. We do know this: We hear of these types of cases only too frequently now. They have become almost routine, almost expected. Still, we cannot pass over them in silence. However frequent or infrequent, such behavior is distressing — a chief rabbi, charged with stealing from charitable funds he supervises! — and such behavior is disgraceful — letting pedophiles off the hook!
Woe unto the day if the reprehensible behavior of rabbinic leaders becomes ho-hum. It cannot go unnoticed and uncondemned. Ethics in rabbinic education must be emphasized — that, along with common sense. A criminal is a criminal, whatever his other outstanding traits or exalted status might be.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
