In 2018, the last full year for which statistics are available, nearly 680,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect and nearly 1,770 children died in this country because of that abuse or neglect. Close to 61 percent of these children were victims of neglect, while nearly 11 percent were physically abused, and 7 percent were sexually abused. In fact, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, every 9 minutes a child is abused sexually—and 82 percent of them are young girls. The topic for this week, therefore, is child abuse of every kind and what Judaism has to say about it. And we begin by focusing on the sexual abuse of children, probably the cruelest of all forms of child abuse. In the early portion of this podcast, there is an interview and the audio is not great during it, but you really need to hear it. The last deals with abuse in general.
