The Jewish Week will be accused
of publishing lashon hora [slander] just as it was when it reported on Rabbi Baruch Lanner in 2000.
The defenses for the rabbi here will parallel those when you published about Lanner: that the reports are not true; that even if the reports are maybe a little bit true, the rabbi does so much good that we should overlook the few cases of the bad-which-is-not-really-all-that-bad; that the people reporting the bad are themselves so mentally or psychologically sick that they cannot be trusted; that the accused rabbi has the most loyal of adherents who would do anything for him; and that the accused rabbi is endorsed and praised by so many sensible prominent Orthodox pillars.
Sadly, The Jewish Week has a well-deserved reputation as being vitriolically anti-Orthodox, and I share that perception. Nevertheless, this report still stands on its own two feet. I will lend my name in support of The Jewish Week decision to publish this report. I know that these many first-person accounts justify a significant investigation into whether any young Jew has been driven from a Torah-observant life because of an abusive experience at an Israeli seminary, endorsed by Yeshiva University (my rabbinical alma mater), marked at that seminary [Netiv Aryeh] by that rabbi [Rav Bina]’s disgraceful actions, including but not limited to public humiliation, physical battery and the violation of the therapist-patient confidentiality privilege.
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
