Lanner Won’t Be An Israeli Citizen. But Door Still Open To Sex Offenders
Needed: laws to prevent Jewish state remaining safe haven for abuse criminals.
Baruch Lanner is listed on the U.S. Sex Offender Registry and being sued in a civil case in New Jersey.
Having covered the case of sex offender Baruch Lanner for more than two decades, it was gratifying to learn that his request for Israeli citizenship was turned down this week by the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem.
Initially, I resisted writing about the latest chapter of the long Lanner saga, which has been reported on in recent days. But I felt I could shed some light on the historical past as well as current and future efforts to keep sexual abusers from “escaping” to Israel.
While this most recent episode had a positive result – at least for now – the effort to prevent diaspora-based sexual predators from becoming Israeli citizens remains an uphill battle.
Chief credit in the push to reject Lanner’s aliyah goes to Magen, an Israeli organization actively advocating for sexual abuse victims, primarily in the Orthodox community. Shana Aaronson, the American-born director of the group, told me this week she first learned in 2019 of Lanner’s intention to settle in Israel, and began contacting authorities and influencers to oppose it. She credited the Jewish Agency for Israel and Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that promotes and facilitates aliyah from America, as being highly effective in lobbying the Israeli government to deny citizenship to Lanner.
Also playing a key role in the effort in the U.S. was a petition signed by hundreds of American rabbis and leaders from across the religious movements, calling on Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to cancel Lanner’s visitor’s visa immediately. The petition described Lanner as “a ticking time-bomb for the safety of our children” and “a violent and brutal convicted criminal.” It asserted that the government cannot allow him to stay in the country “where he will remain completely unsupervised.”
In addition, the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest group of Orthodox rabbis in the U.S., sent Shaked a letter noting that though Israel’s Law of Return grants citizenship to all Jews, it also states that entry can be denied to anyone who “is likely to endanger public health.” The letter said Lanner is on the U.S. Sex Offender Registry and likely to endanger public health.
Praised And Blamed For Exposing Lanner
These powerful efforts deserve applause. They are a far cry from the disappointing response, or lack thereof, among major Orthodox institutions when the Lanner story broke in June 2000.
At that time, Lanner, a brilliant rabbi, was regarded as one of the most charismatic and effective educators in American Orthodoxy. But he had a dark side, widely known to teens in his charge, a number of whom over the years made complaints about his abusive behavior to his superiors at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), an arm of the Orthodox Union. No action was taken.
Only after The Jewish Week published a detailed investigative report on Lanner’s three decades of physical, psychological and emotional abuse of scores of NCSY boys and girls, did the group dismiss him.
Communal reaction was overwhelming, with most letters and comments we received expressing gratitude for shedding light on Lanner’s assaults. But a vocal minority of rabbis and others said The Jewish Week and I, as editor of the paper and reporter of the story, were guilty of lashon hara, the Torah prohibition against spreading embarrassing information.
Unfortunately, more than two decades later, The Jewish Week is still perceived by many in the Orthodox community as being “anti-Orthodox” for covering cases of sexual abuse.
I continue to maintain that our work was in keeping with, rather than in violation of, Jewish law and values.
Based on our reporting, Lanner was convicted and imprisoned for nearly three years for sexually abusing two teenage girls at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal, NJ where he was principal in the 1990s.
In the wake of the scandal, the OU and NCSY, along with many schools, camps and youth groups in the Jewish community, toughened up their policies to guard against abuse. But last November, five women who were victims of Lanner’s abuse in the 1970s and ‘80s filed a civil suit in New Jersey against him and the organizations he helped lead: the OU, NCSY and Hillel Yeshiva. Taking advantage of a “lookback” window that permits sexual abuse victims from the past to come forward and sue their abusers and enablers, the women charged that the three institutions ignored and/or tolerated Lanner’s destructive behavior.
The case is slowly making its way through the legal system.
A New, Important Ruling
Israel’s legal system, however unintentionally, has allowed convicted and alleged sex offenders from the diaspora to start new lives in the Jewish state.
Shana Aaronson of Magen says her organization has a list of about 100 such people, and estimates that up to one-third of them are from the U.S. She attributes the problem to several key factors, including lax police and prosecutors, with more than 90 percent of abuse allegations dismissed; segments of the Orthodox world more committed to defending their community than protecting victims; lack of initiative or interest among lawmakers; and the law itself.
Aaronson says Israel’s Law of Return, allowing Jews from the diaspora to become citizens, is so cherished as foundational that the courts have been reluctant to apply exceptions to the rule. The law does note, though, that the court can revoke citizenship of a person who provided false information in his or her application.
Aaronson’s group has made that assertion in numerous cases, citing clearly misleading applications, “but the answer has always been ‘it’s never done.’”
She was encouraged by the High Court’s decision this week upholding the legality of revoking citizenship. The case at hand involved two citizens convicted of terrorism, but the logic could apply to sex offenders as well. “This ruling is important,” she said.
One of the five women who brought the suit in New Jersey told me this week that while the English-language Israeli media gave significant coverage to the Lanner aliyah issue, reflecting the strong interest among the Anglo population, she was troubled that the Hebrew media seemed far less interested in the story. It may well indicate that most Israelis are not particularly interested in the relatively small number of sex offenders from the diaspora living among them. Given the high rate of recidivism among sexual abusers, though, they should be.
The woman I spoke with, knowing Lanner’s history of “manipulation,” wonders “who will be vigilant to make sure he leaves the country” when his allowed stay of one year is over. “The public needs to keep an eye on these unsettling situations,” she said.
He wouldn’t be the first to evade the authorities, she noted. “I just wish the government would take note, and not just put out this fire, but close the glaring gap in its policies.”
Lanner Won’t Be An Israeli Citizen. But Door Still Open To Sex Offenders
Hi Gary,
I agree that it's important to get the word out to the Hebrew-speaking public. There were three stories in the Hebrew press from Mako, Yisrael Hayom and Haaretz. We had additional inquiries from others, including TV, around the time Shaked responded, and this interest likely contributed to her speaking out.
The online petition also garnered a large percentage of its signatures from Hebrew speakers.
thoughtful perspective, Gary. the last slice is important - who will make sure he leaves the country and what is the timetable. More importantly, is there any momentum for the Israeli gov't to adopt a policy of "No (automatic Return" for those on predator registries in friendly countries like the US, Canada, etc. As for the OU/NCSY, Lanner remains the stain that won't go away. i don't believe the organization has ever formally apologized to the victims. While adopting more stringent policies is a corrective, full teshuva requires charata (true regret and apology to the ones who were harmed).