By Bayli Alter-
On Friday September 13, Rabbi Jonathan Skolnick of Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy (SAR) was arrested on charges that include child enticement and possessing child pornography.
SAR is a Modern Orthodox co-educational day school in Riverdale. SAR Academy is for grades K-8, while SAR High School is for grades 9-12.
Rabbi Skolnick was the assistant principal for Judaic studies at SAR Academy, and allegedly “catfished” an eighth grade boy, emailing him from fake email addresses saying that he was a girl and persuading him to send explicit photos, which he used as blackmail. Since his arrest, Rabbi Skolnick has admitted to having schemed “approximately 20-25 victims.”
This tragedy has produced shock waves all through America. Rabbi Matanky was in disbelief when he heard about what happened: “the magnitude of what happened to students, how an educator and a religious leader could do such a thing is mind boggling to me,” he said.
Junior Hannah Wasserman was shocked when she found out: “It’s crazy because… you hear about things like this on the news… and you think this doesn’t apply to me, it isn’t a part of my world and then you realize that no one is safe.”
Senior Tova Kahan, however, was not as affected: “I don’t know, I’m pretty desensitized to things like this by now. We live in such a messed up world, pedophiles in the Jewish community doesn’t surprise me as much as it probably should.”
Mrs. Friedman was “horrified and sad” when she learned of Rabbi Skolnick’s arrest: “horrified because of the nature of the crime and the scope of the betrayal. Sad because this is yet another incident that is likely to cause our students to lose trust in people.”
In light of the crisis that hit SAR Academy, ICJA students need to be educated and need to know that there are resources here at the Academy if they ever feel unsafe in any way- physically, emotionally, or sexually. Mr. Phil Zbarez is a licensed therapist, meaning that he is required to maintain confidentiality unless he believes that a student is in harm’s way.
“The only good thing I can imagine coming out of this tragedy is a greater awareness,” says Rabbi Matanky. “These are people like us, a school like ours, students who are victims of a similar age to our students. If it hits a little closer to home, maybe people will pay more attention to it.”
Rabbi Matanky wanted to clarify, however, that he is in no way, shape, or form blaming the student who was harassed: “People make mistakes, and we cannot blame the victim. There will never be an answer to the question ‘why?’, so why ask it?”
No comments
Post a Comment