Friday, January 20, 2006

Strange Bedfellows

Guess who's working together to undermine a NY State law which would require parochial schools to report abusive teachers?

The Catholic Church (duh) and Agudath Israel!

According to Zweibel, the Chief Rabbi of Agudah, their concerns are very noble:
The ultra-Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, however, said it was wary of the legislation, which would require clergy to "report to authorities whenever they have reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused," according to a March 19 statement by Morgenthau. David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Aguda, said he feared that the proposal could infringe on "religious freedom.
Which freedom would that be? The freedom to smack kids around? Well no. Apparently, the religious issue Zweibel wishes to protect is mesira, a category of law concerning when one Jew may inform on another to the secular government. The old mobsters, incidently, called it omerta and you can just bet they're wishing that they had had the foresight to wrap it up in religion.