Justice, Finally, But Have Any Lessons Been Learned?

A Jewish Week investigative report six years ago on a rabbi accused of sexually abusing young boys led to a verdict last week in Baltimore. But the silence has been deafening.

Six years later, a resolution of a painful case.

My interest in a little-reported court case in Maryland last week is both professional and personal, and I’d like to explain why.

On February 16, the jury in a civil court determined that a Baltimore rabbi and educator, Shmuel Krawatsky, 47, committed sexual assault against one child and committed battery (harmful contact) against the other in 2015, when the children – 7 and 8 years old at the time – were in his charge. 

The court rejected a battery claim against a third child.

The rabbi was the head counselor of an Orthodox summer day camp in Maryland that the boys attended. He also taught in a Baltimore Jewish day school and led Shabbat services for children with disabilities at a local synagogue.

If the rabbi’s name and the case seem vaguely familiar, it’s likely because the incidents came to light as the result of an in-depth investigative report in The Jewish Week six years ago (“Sex Abuse Charges At Camp Test Community’s Response,” January 19, 2018). Written by then-staff reporter Hannah Drefyus, it asserted, in part, that key leaders in the large, vibrant Orthodox community of Baltimore had ignored a number of warning signals about Krawatsky’s behavior and not only rallied to his defense but spread ugly rumors about the boys’ families, resulting in one of the families moving out of state.

After an initial statement of support for Krawatsky that criticized The Jewish Week article for unnamed errors, the community Jewish day school where he taught fired him. And the synagogue where he led services for children with disabilities announced his resignation.  

Soon after, Krawatsky and his wife filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the parents of the boys, The Jewish Week, Hannah Dreyfus, and Chaim Levin, a sexual abuse activist and blogger, for defamation. The parents of the boys responded by counter suing the rabbi for abuse of their children. 

The Jewish Week was the target of bitter criticism from many in the Orthodox community in Baltimore and elsewhere, ranging from our decision to report on activities far away from New York, to when will we stop our lashon hara (slander) against the Orthodox community.

My response to such complaints, which I’ve heard many times before, did not seem to register. I maintain that our efforts to call out and prevent sexual abuse of children is in keeping with, rather than a violation of, Jewish law and values. 

Over the ensuing years The Jewish Week took on the considerable expense of retaining first-rate legal services, and Hannah and I spent many hours preparing for and later enduring depositions. Far more upsetting, though, was the painful awareness of what the young boys and their families have suffered emotionally, psychologically and in other ways for all of this time. Hopefully, the jury’s validation of their allegations will bring them a measure of healing and renewal. 

In the summer of 2022, the judge in the case, Christopher C. Fogelman, removed The Jewish Week and Hannah from the suit, concluding that there was no malice in our reporting. His 21-page opinion cited Hannah’s detailed account that supported her belief in the boys’ allegations.

Chaim Levin was removed from the suit the week of the trial.

Curiously, now, a full week after the jury’s verdict, there has been no reporting on the case in the Baltimore Jewish Times or The Jewish Week. (To date, the only reporting on the trial and its outcome has been a solid news piece in The Forward and a series of detailed daily blogs from the courtroom by Asher Lovy, who directs Za’akah, a non-profit fighting child sex abuse in the Orthodox community.)

A week after the trial, I contacted several friends who have lived in the Baltimore Orthodox community for many years and learned they were unaware of the trial and its outcome. No discussion in shul or the Shabbat table last weekend.

What to make of the lack of response?  Could it be willful ignorance? Guilt? Amnesia?

Shira Berkovits, founder and CEO of Sacred Spaces, a national group that partners with Jewish communities and institutions to prevent and respond to sexual abuse and other abuses of power, points out that too often communities – not just Baltimore –  fall prey to cognitive dissonance.

She notes that “when a respected religious leader is accused of a morally repugnant crime, the impulse not to believe goes to the core.”

In this case, many people concluded the accusations were false. They came to the defense of the rabbi rather than making a full effort to put “best practices” in place in supporting the alleged victims’ families  and protecting children. 

“It is extremely rare to have a false allegation of child sexual abuse,” according to Victor Vieth, a nationally recognized expert in the field, and familiar with the Baltimore case. “The more victims there are, the less likely it is that the accused is innocent.”

We have seen too many cases of child sexual abuse where our Jewish institutions — synagogues, schools, camps – have good intentions but insufficient policies and procedures in place. Their first priority has to be to keep children safe. That means taking responsibility rather than passing it on or assuming others are dealing with it. 

Our standards for those who teach or serve as counselors for our children must be the highest. As Rabbi Yosef Blau, a longtime advocate for the victims of child abuse in the Orthodox community, noted, “not having enough evidence to convict someone of child abuse” is an embarrassingly low standard for a community to have when it comes to protecting children.” 

It’s been eight years since that summer of 2015 at camp, and six years since the allegations became public. But it’s never too late to do the right thing, starting with acknowledging past mistakes, apologizing publicly and being responsible, accountable – and no longer complicit.

Note: A segment of this piece appeared in a Jewish Week editorial in 2018.