There is a well publicized case of a teacher and camp counselor, Yosef Kolko, convicted in court for molesting a child. The father of the victim, a shul Rabbi, was driven out of Lakewood because he went to the police. The father had a heter from Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch to go the police, but Lakewood rabbis condemned the father for mesira. The case has prompted much discussion among Orthodox Jews about how to handle molestation issues in our midst.
The details of the story keep changing, but they never get better. There is abundant evidence that Kolko is guilty and that the victim's father was justified to go to the police. What happened to the victim's family is tragic. Some are not able to believe that such injustice can happen in Lakewood, a place seen as the Torah capitol of America. But no one is immune to the wiles of the yezter harah.
The Lakewood community attempted to deal with this case strictly through a beis din. Experience in many cases has taught us this approach is a mistake. Molesters need to be reported to the police not because we are convicting them (that is for courts to determine) but to remove threats to our communities. The welfare of children is at stake. Most rabbis have not shown the expertise to understand who is a threat and how to deal with actual molesters.
Many rabbis do not know the halacha when it comes to molestation. If more rabbis would study Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn's sefer on this topic, it would be a better Jewish world. As always the halacha is not the problem. The problem is ourselves.
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