BOB ABERNETHY: Now, an ethical dilemma. How does a journalist balance the professional duty to inform with the humanitarian obligation not to do harm, especially to your own religious community? That was the issue facing THE JEWISH WEEK in New York. After a three-month investigation, it reported that Rabbi Baruch Lanner of New Jersey, over a period of 30 years working with young people, had physically and emotionally abused teenaged boys and girls and sexually harassed scores of girls. The rabbi was forced to resign from his job at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. Both criminal and clergy investigations are under way. And among New York-area Orthodox Jews, some praised THE JEWISH WEEK for its reporting; others charge publication of the story damaged the reputation of all Jews.The editor and publisher of THE JEWISH WEEK is Gary Rosenblatt. Gary, welcome.
Mr. GARY ROSENBLATT (THE JEWISH WEEK): Thank you.
ABERNETHY: Rabbi Lanner is not now talking to reporters, but he has denied all the charges. What made you so sure they were true?
Mr. ROSENBLATT: Well, I didn't initiate the story. People came to me, and they came to me more out of pain, really, than a sense of revenge. And in talking with them over a period of time, I found their stories to be very credible.ABERNETHY: And the Jewish community's reaction now to what you did?
Mr. ROSENBLATT: Overwhelmingly supportive, much more so than I had imagined before we went to publication, and I'd say 95 percent of the hundreds of responses we've gotten have been very supportive.
ABERNETHY: Rabbi Lanner worked for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. You've written that many people who came to you had first gone to the Orthodox Union with the story, but that people there didn't do anything. Why not?
Mr. ROSENBLATT: Well, that's the question that I -- we'd all like to know. There are various theories about why the story -- why action was not taken all these years. I don't have the answer to that, and there's now an OU investigation looking into just that issue.
ABERNETHY: What's the speculation? That it's people just protecting a friend?
Mr. ROSENBLATT: I think it's part of it. It's human nature to protect. And also, the fact that this rabbi was very effective in his work and had a lot of friends, over a period of time, that he worked with. And I think it became more and more difficult to confront the problem.
Mr. ROSENBLATT: In this case, I consulted a rabbinic authority about it because it's such a sensitive situation that I was dealing with, and people's lives. So I did call an authority. And, basically, what he told me was that if there was a compelling reason to believe that if you didn't publish the story, that further harm could continue in the community, then you not only had permission to publish but an obligation to publish. But, as he reminded me, it's a judgment call, and it is a gray area; but I was convinced, particularly by the time I published, that it was the right thing to do.
ABERNETHY: This issue, of course, confronts many other religious groups facing up to a problem, even if it means bad publicity. What's your advice to any religious organization that's sitting on a possible scandal?
