Ramblings

Just "some" of my thoughts....

Friday, January 05, 2007

How is this Yeshiva still open?

It boggles my mind why there are no padlocks on the doors and no yellow crime scene tape around the perimeter of Torah Temimah in Brooklyn, NY. There is no doubt in the minds of many that heinous criminal activity occurred in that building. Thus, this is a crime scene. The fact that the yeshiva allowed this molestation for 40 years makes them culpable and it's beyond me how there are still people living in Brooklyn who have no problem sending their sons to school there. I know in Brooklyn people tend to be all about their "frummy" image (even though they all deny it!) and care about what people are going to say or think about them. What are people going to say or think when they hear you kept your child in an institution which harbors child molesters? What are people going to say or think when it comes to marrying off these boys, will potential matches think, hmm.... this boy went to Torah Temimah, was he also molested there? Parents have the power to set a precedent here for the whole yeshiva community in Brooklyn which seems to provide a safe haven for child molesters and other types of abusers with the attitude of he is respected in the community therefore he doesnt commit crimes and I also must respect him. If parents pull their children out of TT this will send a message to other yeshivas that parents will not tolerate any sort of abuse and the Yeshiva is not the end all and be all. This will force yeshivas to be accountable for the behavior of the staff they employ. The bottom line is that these places are businesses and parents need to send a message that this is a free market. If you have an ice cream store and make an ice cream flavor I like - I will patronize your store, if you fail to provide me with the ice cream of my liking I will go to another store. In Brooklyn, yeshivas are a dime a dozen (even though they all complain that there is nowhere to send their kids) start holding them accountable and they will be forced to shape up. I come from a small town where there was one school and we had to make do with what we had as the years went by new schools opened and forced the "original" school to shape up. If yeshivas start seeing a mass exodus from TT, hopefully, they will see that it's in their best interest to keep their "patrons" happy, otherwise this will result in a loss of business. Only the parents have the power to do this but as long as they continue to blind themselves by "what other people might think" nothing will ever change and unfortunately will only claim more victims. For the parents who think Kolko in innocent or is an isolated incident are destined to become victims of their own ignorance.

If TT allowed this criminal activity to go on for nearly forty years I wonder what other criminal activity they permitted over the past four decades. A thorough criminal investigation should be executed on this institution and I am certain that there will be more criminal defendants. This too should set precedent for yeshivas who engage in criminal activity that they can not hide behind the innocent cloak of religion. If you break the law you need to be held accountable, no matter how ling your beard and how black your hat.

PS. I just found this on Kolko's page on ratemyteachers.com - something else that should be investigated.

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