(JTA) — A senior Chabad rabbi apologized for comparing the effect of child molestation to the “embarrassment” of diarrhea.
Rabbi Manis Friedman, who lives in Minnesota and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Beis Chana educational institute, apologized last Friday in a statement to JTA for his “completely inappropriate use of language when discussing sexual abuse.”
The statement came in response to a recent Youtube video in which Friedman dispenses advice about whether to admit child sex abuse to a girlfriend.
In the video, Friedman recounts his response to a question about whether to disclose a history of molestation. "I said: ‘Do you have to tell that you once had diarrhea?’ It’s embarrassing but nobody’s business.”
In a second video clip he posted on YouTube after critics pounced on the earlier one, Friedman referred to child sex abuse as a “crisis” in the Orthodox community but stopped short of retracting his earlier statements.
