Miscreants Matter Too: Say His Name

An article in the Jewish Journal by Harvey Farr about the resignation of Canter Lam quotes the Stephen S. Wise Temple leadership…we have “an obligation to model how a sacred community responds to misconduct, regardless of when it occurred.” (Original Article can be seen here).

In my lay opinion, the way our “sacred institutions” and communities have responded to Cantor Lam’s misconduct is a violation of T’Shuvah, the Jewish Response to misconduct. The goal of T’Shuvah is repentance, reconciliation and reconnection, a healing process for both the victim and offender. 

Sadly, our sacred institutions have been taken hostage by an opportunistic adversarial legal system that seeks only to blame, threatened and damage in order to win.

The “me too” climate of today is an invitation to those who feel aggrieved to reframe consensual sex as harassment in their ‘recovered memories’. I am not denying that women have been victimized by powerful men. Unfortunately the victims, in some cases, have often become victimizers. 

I believe Cantor Lam is a victim of the times and the legal system. All of the people to whom I have spoken to know that the Cantor was not guilty of sexual harassment. They too are victims who have been silenced by the same system. On “advice of counsel” and threatened litigation they have removed him from their letterhead and cannot speak his name. He must be erased from their memory! It is a punishment worse than death since he can be neither remembered nor memorialized for all the good he has done, a sacred Jewish tradition. 

Isn’t it time for our ‘sacred institutions’ to stand up and challenge the system that destroys relationships, ignores truth and justice as well as compromises everyone’s integrity?