Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of sexual violence, including harassment, rape, abuse, and other forms.
Sexual Violence
The Latest
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Israel News New Israeli Legislation Aims To Change Definition of Rape To Include Male Victims
For years, Israeli child-protection officials have looked on in despair as female pedophiles and incestuous mothers brought to court for molesting boys were never even charged with rape. “It happened several times that teachers or mothers of boys were charged with [on the basis of] facts describing rape [i.e., forced sexual intercourse], and the offense…
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Breaking News Former Camp Counselor Sentence to 13 Years in Prison For Sexual Assault
Yosef Kolko, a former Jewish educator from New Jersey, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault. Kolko, who was sentenced late Thursday in Ocean County Superior Court in New Jersey, pleaded guilty in May to multiple sexual crimes. A former counselor at an Orthodox summer camp, Kolko admitted to performing oral…
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Life Forgiving The Men Who Sexually Abused Me
Content warning: The author has requested that there be a content/trigger warning as this piece talks about sexual abuse and rape. You tell your editor you’ll write a piece about forgiveness and sexual abuse — about surviving being both sexually molested and raped, and then forgiving your abusers. And you’ll write it for Yom Kippur….
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News Norman Lamm’s Mental Health Prompts Y.U. Abuse Judge To Order Evaluation
When Rabbi Norman Lamm retired as chancellor of Yeshiva University in July, many people rued the fact that his distinguished career had been tarnished by his own admission, last December, that he mishandled allegations of physical and sexual abuse while he was president of Y.U. Now, Lamm’s mental health is being dragged into the limelight…
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Breaking News Judge Orders Mental Competence Exam for Norman Lamm in Y.U. Sex Abuse Suit
A federal judge has ordered an independent medical examination of the mental health of Rabbi Norman Lamm, Yeshiva University’s former president, in the opening stages of a $380 million sex abuse lawsuit. Judge John Koeltl ordered a medical evaluation of Lamm as early as next week, during a pretrial hearing in U.S. District Court on…
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Breaking News Yeshiva University’s Own Expert on Abuse Condemns Recent YU Abuse Report
Yeshiva University’s resident legal expert on child sexual abuse is condemning her employer’s recent report on the alleged sexual abuse committed by YU staff against high school students under their care. Marci Hamilton, Paul R. Verkuil Chair of Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a nationally recognized legal expert on…
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Opinion Y.U. Report’s Three Paragraphs Fails To Do Justice to Abuse — or Jewish Ethics
On August 26, the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, hired by Yeshiva University to look into allegations of past abuse at the university’s High School for Boys, finally concluded its eight-month investigation and released a report detailing its findings. As one of the high school students abused in the early 1970s and as one…
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News Y.U. Report on Sex Abuse Draws Mixed Reaction From Modern Orthodox
The Modern Orthodox community has broadly welcomed a long-awaited report into allegations that Yeshiva University staff physically and sexually abused numerous students over several decades. But the report, which withheld most of the findings uncovered by investigators, was not enough to mollify some current and former Y.U. students and victims of abuse. “More will need…
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