Other people have written in great detail about all the extremely grave questions raised by the Forward’s article on the Rabbinical Council of America’s investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, so I’m not going to repeat them here.
However, what stands out in my mind from the entire Forward article is the following sentence: “several alleged victims have refused to air their claims publicly, for fear of committing sacrilege by shaming a prominent rabbi.”
If this truly is the reason some of the victims are holding back, surely this goes to the root of the matter. It’s one thing for victims to refuse to come forward because they are afraid for their own privacy or reputation, or because they are afraid of the repercussions on their own lives if they go up against a powerful figure. But to refuse to come forward – and help stop harassment of others in the future – out of concern for their harasser’s reputation??? To protect him and help cover up because he holds the title ‘Rabbi’?????
It is this exact attitude – the instinctive veneration of religious authority figures -- that Tendler, if he is guilty, and other Rabbis and authority figures who harass women, rely on in order to get away with their repulsive behaviour. And unfortunately, this is unwittingly complicated by current trends in the community that seem to be elevating the status of rabbis more and more, so that even non-hassidic rabbis seem to be taking on auras.
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