Earlier this month I read of the case of a former Hassidim woman who was in the middle of a sexual abuse case against her father. The now 27 year-old was a sex slave of her father who first raped her at the tender age of 9. For 18 years she not only was robbed of her childhood, but was robbed of her humanity by a monster that was supposed to care for her and cherish her as her father.

This is not an isolated case, but it's been hard for child rape and pedophilia victims to get the word out and bring their abusers to justice. The Hasidim's cultural insularity makes it incredibly difficult for victims to seek justice or to find help, but that wall of silence around the community is starting to crumble. The bashing of that wall is coming from the community itself but it's meeting a lot of resistance.

Word is out that Orthodox Jewish and Hasidim organizations have created a lobby coalition against the passage of the Child Victims Act:  read more »

The worst part of the whole "Spitzer Can't Keep it in His Pants" story is not that Spitzer slept with a prostitute, or that he paid huge sums of money for it, or that he got caught, or that his actions may for now derail reform in New York State. The worst part is the hypocritical, self-rightous chest thumping that Republican politicians and their media friends are engaging in.

Somehow, normal sex sets the right wing fanatics off in a fit of hysteria that would give Freud wet dreams. But if one of their own commits pedophilia, what do you hear from these people? Nothing! They cover it up if they can and circle the wagons if they can't. Let's keep this whole thing in perspective. Bill Clinton got a blow job, an act of consensual sex between adults, and the Republicans demanded impeachment. Eliot Spitzer hired an expensive sex worker and the Republicans are threatening impeachment. But a whole slew of Republicans on all levels of government engage in pedophilia and you hear nary a peep from the Republican noise machine. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?  read more »