וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
In response to Gary Rosenblatt’s September 29, 2024 article Sacred Spaces issues the following statement:
Sacred Spaces stands by our founding board chair, Judy Klitsner, who joined several other plaintiffs in a recently settled lawsuit against the Orthodox Union following the abuse she and others endured at the hands of an OU-employed rabbi when they were teenagers.
As we at Sacred Spaces have often seen in our work, survivors are wounded not only by those who inflicted abuse but also by the institutions that failed to protect them. In some cases, such institutional failures carry extra and more enduring pain to survivors because they can result in feelings of abandonment – by their communities, their leaders, and, at times, their faith itself. When survivors of abuse sue an institution that they once revered, the action is a call for accountability, justice for past mishandling of abuse, and reforms that reduce the threat to future victims.
Every survivor must be free to decide for themselves how best to respond to the physical, emotional, and spiritual harm resulting from abuse. Sacred Spaces respects Judy’s decision to seek a judicial remedy. We hold Judy and the other survivors in our hearts and pray that their courage will contribute to genuine reform in all Jewish communities.
