(YourDigitalWall Editorial):- East Brunswick, New Jersey Mar 11, 2026 (Issuewire.com) – East Brunswick Jewish Center Addresses Its Past Response To Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse And Commits to Measures to Enhance Child Safety
We, the lay leadership and Rabbi of the East Brunswick Jewish Center (EBJC), recognize and acknowledge concerns with EBJC’s past response to child sex abuse and commit to undertaking measures to enhance the safety of children in our community.
In 2021, EBJC was sued by an adult survivor who alleged he was sexually abused in the 1990s by Akiva Roth, EBJC’s bar mitzvah tutor at the time, inside of EBJC. In 1996, Roth was arrested for sexually abusing multiple Jewish children, including members of the EBJC community. At that time, the rabbi of the synagogue as well as EBJC’s president, were made aware of the arrest but EBJC did not formally investigate Roth’s conduct at EBJC and did not inform EBJC members whose children may have interacted with Roth. We recognize and appreciate that we should have responded differently, and for that we apologize.
Since the filing of the lawsuit, we have realized that EBJC failed to provide our community with an appropriately sensitive voice that clearly supports survivors of sexual abuse. Over the course of this litigation, we learned many details regarding Roth’s history of child sex abuse, and today we affirm that we believe this survivor, and offer him our complete support.
We are deeply sorry for the pain experienced by all children who were victimized by Akiva Roth. We affirm that the policy of EBJC is to believe and support survivors. Accordingly, and belatedly, we make this public statement and apology, and undertake the following to secure a safer future for our children:
EBJC has agreed to engage ChildUSA, a leading nonprofit think tank dedicated to children’s rights, to identify if there are any institutional shortcomings in how we protect children today, to ensure that EBJC adopts the most protective child safety program available. We are eager to work with them.
We also commit to hosting an annual fundraiser at EBJC for the next several years to support Za’akah, a leading nonprofit combating child sex abuse in the Jewish community. Za’akah provides life-saving resources to survivors and we are proud to partner with them in this fundraising initiative.
We now appreciate the extraordinary courage that it took for the survivor to come forward and are grateful for his help in implementing these important steps.
(YourDigitalWall Editorial):- East Brunswick, New Jersey Mar 11, 2026 (Issuewire.com) – East Brunswick Jewish Center Addresses Its Past Response To Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse And Commits to Measures to Enhance Child Safety
We, the lay leadership and Rabbi of the East Brunswick Jewish Center (EBJC), recognize and acknowledge concerns with EBJC’s past response to child sex abuse and commit to undertaking measures to enhance the safety of children in our community.
In 2021, EBJC was sued by an adult survivor who alleged he was sexually abused in the 1990s by Akiva Roth, EBJC’s bar mitzvah tutor at the time, inside of EBJC. In 1996, Roth was arrested for sexually abusing multiple Jewish children, including members of the EBJC community. At that time, the rabbi of the synagogue as well as EBJC’s president, were made aware of the arrest but EBJC did not formally investigate Roth’s conduct at EBJC and did not inform EBJC members whose children may have interacted with Roth. We recognize and appreciate that we should have responded differently, and for that we apologize.
Since the filing of the lawsuit, we have realized that EBJC failed to provide our community with an appropriately sensitive voice that clearly supports survivors of sexual abuse. Over the course of this litigation, we learned many details regarding Roth’s history of child sex abuse, and today we affirm that we believe this survivor, and offer him our complete support.
We are deeply sorry for the pain experienced by all children who were victimized by Akiva Roth. We affirm that the policy of EBJC is to believe and support survivors. Accordingly, and belatedly, we make this public statement and apology, and undertake the following to secure a safer future for our children:
EBJC has agreed to engage ChildUSA, a leading nonprofit think tank dedicated to children’s rights, to identify if there are any institutional shortcomings in how we protect children today, to ensure that EBJC adopts the most protective child safety program available. We are eager to work with them.
We also commit to hosting an annual fundraiser at EBJC for the next several years to support Za’akah, a leading nonprofit combating child sex abuse in the Jewish community. Za’akah provides life-saving resources to survivors and we are proud to partner with them in this fundraising initiative.
We now appreciate the extraordinary courage that it took for the survivor to come forward and are grateful for his help in implementing these important steps.
This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.
