| If you speak to survivors of child sex abuse, and ask what they want, the vast majority will say two things: justice and they don’t want any more children hurt the way they were. | | Our American legal system gives them two complementary shots at justice, the power to prosecute, and the right to sue for damages (when we get the statutes of limitation out of the way). Criminal justice happens in no more than 11% of child sex abuse cases for several reasons including only a third of child victims tell anyone and usually not a person in authority, and the cases can be hard for prosecutors to prove. Moreover, prosecutors have shied away from suing the powerful institutions that let this happen, which limits prosecution to a perpetrator who may or may not be alive once the victim can come forward. Many states had relatively short criminal SOLs until relatively recently and so they expired before the victims could report to the police. Since it’s unconstitutional to revive an expired criminal SOL, the door to criminal justice often clangs shut loudly. | | What we know about institution-based child sex abuse has largely been fueled by the thousands of civil lawsuits, which through discovery have shown us how serial predators get access to so many children under self-serving institutional rules and behaviors. This country has come a long way since 2002 when the Boston Globe detailed the Boston Archdiocesan system that empowered then-Cardinal Law to move known child perpetrators from one parish to another without recourse. Over twenty years ago, the idea that a Cardinal—a Cardinal!!—would let children be sexually abused was unthinkable to the general public. But then one news outlet after another reported on other Archdioceses and dioceses, prosecutors like Philadelphia’s Lynne Abraham, instituted grand jury investigations, and in 2011, Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky was unmasked. Then it was boarding schools, other religious institutions, schools, coaches, on and on. All this public education brought to you by the courts has dramatically improved the public’s knowledge about child sex abuse. Twenty years ago, the Epstein Files Transparency Act would not have made it into committee, let alone to the congressional floor, but in 2025 it was passed overwhelmingly in both Houses. Even President Donald Trump couldn’t refuse to sign it. | | At this point in our public knowledge of child sex abuse, and especially institution-based abuse, one would hope that survivors’ second desire—to prevent future abuse—would already be in the works. Instead, our youth-interfacing institutions have yet to develop into sophisticated universes of child protection. The science is there, but there is a long way to go. | | So how do we prompt our youth universe to create a safer space for children? Typically it is happening on the backs of the abused. Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors have been speaking up since 2006, which is twenty years ago, but the powers-that-be continue to play games with the truth as the Department of Justice releases documents in drips and drabs. That drives the survivors back on the air to explain once again why it is so important the American public understand what happened and that there are men from his sphere who were also abusing girls. Those men need to be named and brought to justice. It should have happened a long time ago. | | There are three extraordinary survivors right now using their talents to turn the toxic arenas where they were abused into safer places for children: a lawyer, a violinist, and an actor. Each is employing their special knowledge to change the world where they should have been safe and happy in the first place. We owe them our attention and a deep debt of gratitude. | | Attorney Alex Kaufman | | When Alex Kaufman was twelve years old at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, the rabbi hired Akiva Roth to provide “advanced instruction” for Alex pre-bar mitzvah. Alex’s new instructor was the son of Rabbi Joel Roth, who was removed as the Dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary for sexual impropriety. Following in dad’s footsteps, Akiva was a counselor at the Jewish summer Camp Ramah, where he was known for explicitly sexual conversations with campers among other sexual inappropriateness. According to Alex, “Roth would talk endlessly about sexual topics, then shame [Alex] for the 'crime’ of having to listen to his perverted obsession.” Alex filed a lawsuit in 2021 when New Jersey’s statute of limitations window was open. Alex has gone above and beyond being a plaintiff, with the purpose of making the world safer for children. | | By the time that Alex filed in 2021, he had every right to expect a nearly seamless experience. He knew exactly what happened, his perpetrator was known for the behavior he experienced, he had evidence of a coverup, and his lawsuit was filed in a timely manner. For those of you who have battled like Alex, you know “seamless” never describes this journey. | | When he did decide to come forward, at first, Alex struggled. He told his parents, who had been highly respected at the synagogue, and their response was textbook: why didn’t you tell us? We just can’t believe it all these years later. Why do we have to dredge up the past now? Alex was a star student and athlete through his childhood and then adulthood, so for them, Alex’s message was jarring to the point of nearly impossible to understand. The lack of support did not stop Alex. | | Alex is a successful attorney now and deployed his legal skills and sheer grit to slay the demons that follow adult disclosure of child sex abuse. Like so many survivors, he was deeply concerned about the protection of his children. He reached out to me to talk about what was at the time CHILD USA’s child sex abuse prevention program. He wanted his kids’ school to adopt it, and they did. Check. | | Then there was his case against Akiva Roth and the powerful Jewish institutions that enabled him, which he filed as “John Doe,” as so many do. As is typical, it stretched out over several years, four and a half to be exact. This was the classic David against Goliath, with these institutions holding critically important evidence, so Alex went to The Forward, a publication that covers issues of interest to Jewish Americans, and they published an investigative piece not long after he filed suit. He says in his Substack piece, which is an eloquent victim impact statement titled “Poking the Hornet’s Nest,” that he “was hungry for the truth—not just my own, but the full scope of how many others were harmed.” They delivered and the story began to be pieced together, but he needed even more and kept digging. Neither the initial story nor his lawsuit elicited a caring response from the synagogue at the time. | | Four years later, though, he found the synagogue’s current leadership willing to commit to “real, structural change.” A public statement was issued acknowledging the cover-up, Check, and even “[m]ore importantly” to him, they agreed to adopt the Gold Standard Prevention Program to prevent future sex abuse and to hold an annual fundraiser to support other Jewish survivors. Check. | | The agreement also strongly protected Alex’s right to speak about the abuse and the cover-up while preventing disparagement of him. This part of the agreement turns the old system on its head, where victims were silenced in exchange for monetary agreements, and institutions that would muzzle victims with NDAs to shield themselves from criticism or accountability. | | But he wasn’t done, because he also believes that Camp Ramah needs major change. He wrote a letter to their Board of Trustees and the Camp outlining their failures and demanding improvement. So far, that is a work in progress, but he made a strong case. | | Alex Kaufman has braved one hurdle after another, but his use of the legal system for justice and to improve child protection is impressive. To improve child protection in the larger Jewish community, he published an op-ed in The Forward following the settlement, entitled: I was sexually abused at my synagogue as a child. Here’s how our community can protect others from that horror. At no point has he lost sight of the horizon of the future and the needs of children, to his great credit. | | Violinist Lara St. John | | Lara St. John was a prodigy violinist, who was sent as a child to the world-class Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she was abused by one of the most prestigious violin instructors in the world, Jascha Brodsky. She bravely rejected Brodsky after six months of abuse and reported it to the dean. The school did nothing. She reported it six times as an adult before the school took it seriously! After she came forward in a front-page story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the school did an investigation and found her credible. | | Lara is one of the Pennsylvania survivors who has testified more than once to lawmakers to create justice by opening a statute of limitations window, which has been “pending” since 2005 when it was first suggested to Harrisburg in the recommendations of District Attorney Lynne Abraham’s 2005 Grand Jury Investigation into the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s history of clergy sex abuse. While waiting for the justice she deserves, she has been hard at work to clean up the international classical music universe, which sadly is filled with abusive and powerful men and defenseless musicians. She traveled the globe, seeking out survivors and their stories, and documenting them. Many told her their heartbreaking stories. | | The result is “Dear Lara,” a moving and unflinching assessment of the classical music schooling system, which thrives on prodigies like Lara, but like so many other institutions more interested in their reputations than the children they serve, negligently ignores the signs right before their eyes. To put it bluntly: they just don’t care until they are made to care, and that is this incredibly talented woman’s mission. The documentary is being shown at film festivals this year, including Wednesday, May 13 in Baltimore. | | The sad testimony of this beautifully created film is that children are at just as much risk in this wealthy, highbrow ecosystem as they are anywhere else. Lara St. John will have none of it. She has used her documentary to get the message out, including calling out the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, as part of the Canadian premiere. | | Actor Jay Sefton | | I have been working with Roman Catholic survivors, advocates, and experts since I first met Barbara Blaine, co-founder of SNAP, over twenty years ago. I have nothing but deep respect for the other leaders of this movement including Terry McKiernan and Anne Barrett Doyle, the founders (and maintainers) of bishopaccountability.org, which is the archive of all archives of the global Catholic child sex abuse system. We know so much about the bishops’ behavior at this point because of them and the media; the state that knows the most is Pennsylvania, where we’ve been blessed with District Attorney Lynne Abraham’s series of grand jury investigations into the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 2003 to 2011 and now-Governor Josh Shapiro, who as Attorney General issued a sweeping investigation into child sex abuse in every diocese in Pennsylvania that had not yet been documented. As an academic, I can be susceptible to believing facts are enough to solve problems. But that is not always so. | | Actor Jay Sefton was a kid in the Philadelphia suburbs who volunteered to be Jesus in the school play. That was the pathway that led him to his priest abuser, Thomas J. Smith. How many Philly area stories have we already heard, right? What could Jay provide at this point that advances the ball in this movement to protect children? I will tell you: his one-man play, Unreconciled. You think you “know” Catholic clergy sex abuse until you experience Jay playing the roles of his father, his mother, himself, the other kids, and the priest. It is a stunning evening, because he takes you so deftly beyond the “usual” story to and through his father’s heart and every other character’s. It’s so hard to hear his mother tell him to get over it, but it is also authentic, and, frankly, so Philly, just like the Eagles and Villanova basketball clips that supplement the images of him from the play itself. | | This play brilliantly speaks to those who have been abused in other contexts as well as non-survivors. As art can only do, it takes these issues away from simple facts to the soul. Jay’s remarkable vulnerability and bravery turn this play into a teaching event. He, too, awaits a Pennsylvania window, but you can feel the yearning in Unreconciled for a world where this never happens to kids who volunteer to play Jesus. | | These three survivors each want both justice and prevention. Too many victims do not get a shot at justice or are forced into a case or system where their concerns about future victims are not honored. The three heroes I have described above have each found a path to demand transparency, the truth, accountability, and the protection of children. Alex found justice and continues to push for prevention, while Lara and Jay fight for prevention first while awaiting meaningful justice. Many kudos to them. | | But imagine a world where survivors did not need to shoulder the safety of future children themselves, but rather could focus solely on their own healing and lives. That is, a world where we as a society stepped up to stop this epidemic without letting institutions get away with it. Until then, we cannot reach our goal of true prevention without our survivors deploying their talents to improve the world. |
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