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 »