Q&A: The Sexual Harassment Affair Involving a Rabbi in the South
The Sexual Harassment Affair Involving a Rabbi in the South
Question
Hello,
I wanted to share what I’m experiencing in a community in the south that is led by a rabbi whom they greatly admire. I never admired him blindly, not him and really not any rabbi, and now a friend of mine is complaining about him that he harassed her, and it blew up in an article that was published (I knew about the incident a long time ago).
What’s happening right now is that everyone in the community doesn’t believe her; they say there’s no way the rabbi did such a thing.
The rabbi, of course, is publicly denying everything. I feel that this whole system is rotten from the inside, because there are other problems there too (I won’t go into detail right now).
What can I say to a person who is so shocked by me that I think it’s possible the rabbi did this? Isn’t it legitimate to think that?
Answer
There’s no such thing as it not being legitimate to think something. If your friend is trustworthy to you, then he probably did it. Such things have happened before. Unfortunately, in conservative communities they refuse to accept the possibility that a rabbi could do things like this, and in that way the woman who was harassed gets hit twice. I suggest you reconsider your belonging to such a community and such a public.