Allison Josephs is the founder and executive director of Jew in the City has been involved in the field of Jewish Outreach for over twenty years and is the Partner in Torah mentor to actress Mayim Bialik. She was named one of NJOP’s Top Ten Jewish Influencers and one of the Jewish Week’s 36 under 36. Allison has been quoted or written about in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People Magazine, NYPost, Daily News, TMZ, The Daily Beast, and Hollywood Reporter. She has appeared on numerous television and radio networks including CBS, ABC, Fox5, TLC, Associate Press TV, and NPR; her articles have appeared in publications including The Washington Post, JTA, Jewish Week, Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and Kveller.
Pearson Education, the largest textbook company in the world, produced a video segment on Allison’s life for the Judaism chapter of their textbook. She is a sought-after international lecturer whose corporate clients include Con-Edison and NYU Langone and hosts a weekly podcast on the Nachum Segal Network. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in Philosophy and lives with her husband and four children minutes from the George Washington Bridge.
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First, as you mentioned, most people who claim to have been sexually abused are telling the truth.
Now, in the Orthodox world, the claim of sexual abuse has dramatic negative repercussions for the claimant, regardless of the truth. Those who report to the police, or otherwise claim they were sexually abused by a Jew are thrown out of their yeshivos, have their homes burnt down, lose their jobs, … .
In other words, an Orthodox Jew would need to be literally psychotic to make a false claim.
That said, we must believe a Jew who claims to have been abused.
Thanks for your comment, Ben, but to clarify, this is not happening in all parts of the orthodox world. But it is unfortunately happening in some parts and should be spoken against in the strongest terms.