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Orthodox pedophile exposé screens in San Raphael August 8 – ‘Standing Silent’ from the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 5 August 2011
Jewish film festival offering showcases heroic efforts of a Jewish newspaper reporter
Orthodox reporter Phil Jacobs broke the story
By Dan PineStaff WriterJWeekly.com
Journalist Phil Jacobs says it only takes one touch.
Just one sexually charged fondling at the hands of a trusted adult may have a ripple effect that “can change the way you make decisions, change relationships — if you can have relationships — or can change you sexually,” Jacobs says. “One touch.”
Because he knew this from agonizing personal experience, Jacobs became something of an anti-pedophile crusader in his native Baltimore, where he wrote for the Jewish Times (he now serves as editor of the Washington Jewish Week in the nation’s capital).
Starting in 2006, the Baltimore Jewish Times began a series of nearly two-dozen stories about rabbis and other Jewish community leaders who allegedly preyed on the children among them. Jacobs named names.
A courtroom sketch from Yisroel Shapiro’s trial on charges of sexual molestation
The story of his crusade, and the high price Jacobs paid for it, is captured in the 2010 documentary “Standing silent,” which had its California premiere last week at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Jacobs and director Scott Rosenfelt were on hand for two of the Bay Area screenings.
The third and final screening takes place Monday, Aug. 8, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Jacobs talked with j. during his Bay Area visit.
Echoing the scandal plaguing the Catholic Church (though on a smaller scale), the film tracks Jacobs’ efforts to expose alleged predators lurking in Baltimore’s tight-knit Orthodox community. one included a revered long-dead rabbi, others were still very much alive.
As Jacobs’ articles came out, many in Baltimore’s Jewish community were outraged. at Jacobs.
“I was very angry at the Orthodox community,” said Jacobs, who is himself Orthodox. “This was happening in our community and instead you’re getting mad at me. I didn’t molest anybody.”
Rabbi Abraham Twerski, a psychiatrist interviewed in standing silent
He was in fact the victim of molestation. at age 14, a much older Jewish community activist lured Jacobs and a few friends to his home, where he cornered Jacobs. when the teen resisted, the man raped him.
The crime so traumatized him, Jacobs told no one until well into adulthood.
“If you could picture a three-drawer file cabinet,” Jacobs says, “the bottom drawer was my molestation, with a deep chain around it with a huge bullet-proof Masterlock, and nobody could go in there.”
It wasn’t until years later that his past caught up with him. A TV news special about a pedophile priest transfixed him. Jacobs’ wife, Lisa, came home and found him sobbing.
“I told her that night what happened, when it happened and what it had done to me,” he recalls. “My therapist helped me unlock the lock of that cabinet, and we took out each file.”
Later, at the Jewish Times, he started his investigations into other alleged predators. Producer Rosenfelt, who had known Jacobs through a family connection, pitched the idea of a documentary soon after.
That began a three-year ride as a virtual reality show star.
“A videographer showed up in my office one day,” Jacobs remembers, “and started following me around. she was saying things like, ‘Could you back the car up again?’ We even went to Israel to visit my oldest daughter and the videographer followed us there.”
The “big reveal” in the film is Jacob’s molestation, but the high point of “Standing Silent” comes when the camera captures a phone call from December 2007. Jacobs learns that Yisroel Shapiro, the target of one of his investigations, is arrested for his crimes. Jacobs weeps, gratified that his work paid off for victims.
The joy is short-lived, however. Shapiro receives probation three months later, then quickly returns to his job at a kosher butcher shop. Shapiro was one of only two pedophiles investigated by Jacobs to be convicted.
Still, Jacobs is grateful for victories large and small.
“The result is we’ve had a number of [Jewish] healing services in Baltimore. We get together, survivors get up and tell their stories.”
He also touts the formation of survivor groups throughout Baltimore, one of which he attends. And he has spoken at Jewish day schools, with one Orthodox student claiming it was “the most important hour I ever spent,” Jacobs reports.
“Those are the things that make you cry with a smile on your face. the terrain has changed.”
Though he has moved on from covering the Baltimore Jewish community, Jacobs says he will continue his fight against child predators. For him, it’s personal.
“It sounds really shmaltzy,” he says, “but I feel I’ve been tapped on the shoulder by God to do something because something happened to me. My thing is that not one child goes to bed worrying about somebody touching them. That’s what drives me to this day. Protecting that kid.”
“Standing Silent” screens 4:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 8, at the Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. Information: sfjff.org or (415) 621-0523.
See Related: Film Archive
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In jazz, jamming is the creative process’ very essence:
Collaborative, improvisational and inspirational in the noble tradition of Dave Brubeck, the 90-year-old piano master.
Such riffing results in some added edginess when it’s done in public.
Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony
Who: 18 high school students, 12 instructors in concert
Where: Faye Spanos Concert Hall, University of the Pacific
Information: (209) 946-2415
“We wanted to open the door and say, ‘Hey, come on in and check out this jam session,’” said Patrick Langham, associate professor of jazz studies at University of the Pacific. “It’s a little more informal and natural. for me, it’s actually more enticing.”
For the first time since the program’s 2002 inception, its 18 high-school students – a national jazz “all-star” team participating in this week’s Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony – have been holding nightly Recital Hall jam sessions in public.
They’ll split into three ensembles tonight and demonstrate some of the chops they’ve picked up during six days of mentoring and interacting at Pacific. Each group will be accompanied by a faculty soloist during a concluding concert at Faye Spanos Concert Hall.
“Absolutely,” said Parker Speirs, 17, a guitarist from Highland High School in Gilbert, Ariz. “I’m hearing a lot of different ideas from the artists’ vocabulary. I’m getting ideas from other players I can integrate into my playing.
“It’s really been inspiring listening to everybody play. Absolutely. I’m sharing everything I’m learning.”
Langham, 41, a saxophone player who’s the summer program’s interim director, wanted community members to gain some inside perspective on the creative process. the young musicians also can test stage personas and experience public pressures.
“Musicians call a tune on stage and no one knows what it’ll be,” said Langham, who directs Pacific’s jazz-studies program and leads his own professional quartet. “Once it’s kicked off, we’re mixing ‘colonists’ with faculty. for a person coming in, it’s almost as if they see the instruction and mentoring.
“They’re right there to overhear what type of comments are being made. like, ‘Oh, man, that sounded really good.’ Or, if someone falls flat on his face on the bridge or the tune, somebody says, ‘Hey, it’s OK. when it gets to that point in the tune, be thinking about X, Y and Z.’ “
The students, chosen by audition from nine states – including four Californians – are way beyond their musical A-B-C’s.
“It’s been great,” said Matt Bumgardner, 17, a trombone player from Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Wash. “Like, the best part is being surrounded by people who are really, really good. At or above your level. You don’t get that in a high-school program. People here are so talented. It’s a really great environment.”
“You know,” said Langham, heading into his eighth year at Pacific, “the thing I notice most is the quality level continues to keep going higher. It’s always great. Outstanding musicians.
“We always get the best every year, and they’re even more prepared every year. Apparently, we’re all doing a good job as jazz educators.”
Langham is one of 12 instructors mentoring the visiting students. that includes musical director Joe Gilman, a pianist and professional band leader who teaches at American River College in Sacramento.
Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Chris Cheek (saxophone) and Ryan Keberle (trombone) each combine with a six-student ensemble tonight. the set lists, formulated during the week, include at least one tune associated with Brubeck, a Pacific graduate (1942) whose unparalleled career is approaching 70 years.
“Oh, yeah,” said Bumgardner, a senior who hopes to earn a Brubeck Institute fellowship after he graduates in 2012. ” ‘Take Five.’ ‘Three to Get Ready.’ I definitely know about him. especially regarding odd meters and things you’re not supposed to be doing.”
Bumgardner, who’s got new York’s Manhattan School of Music in mind following a possible two-year program at Pacific, said, “I hope to go into performance and writing and arranging music. I’d like to get more seriously into that.”
He’s already made serious progress. Bumgardner plays in his school’s wind ensemble and jazz band, his own jazz combo and substitutes with a Seattle big band.
Speirs stays busy, too. A senior, he’s a member of his school’s orchestra and jazz band. He also “fools around” on bass and guitar in “several” jazz combos, performs with the Phoenix Youth Symphony and lets loose in a “prog-metal” rock band: “I love to play.”
Speirs “absolutely wants to stay in music” performance and “would be happy at the production end. In the studio.”
He’s making plenty of progress this week.
“It’s truly amazing,” Speirs said. “I told my buddy after only two days, ‘This is the most educational experience I’ve ever had.’ I’ve learned so much. all of the faculty have been great. all the others (students) are absolutely incredible at what they do.”
Like Bumgardner, he comprehends the legacy of Brubeck, an internationally acknowledged jazz titan who was born in Concord and grew up on an Ione ranch. Langham said Brubeck’s ethic remains a key component in the summer program’s adventuresome energy and spirit.
(Brubeck was scheduled to play with his sons’ quartet at last weekend’s Newport Jazz Festival in Fort Adams, R.I., but didn’t perform, according to a new York Times reviewer.)
“It’s probably, like, the most intensive jazz-studies camp you can imagine,” said Langham, who’s had to focus more on dotting I’s and crossing T’s while a national search continues for a successor to Steve Anderson as Brubeck Institute director. “We’re very aware that the biggest role of the institute is serving and opening doors for new young musicians.
“Dave’s done many great things. the thing that means the most to him is helping others. his legacy is allowing young students to make connections with their peers and older mentors that will last the rest of their lives.”
That includes plenty of jamming, riffing and creative curiosity.
“They learn on stage,” Langham said. “Some might not think that. But onstage? That’s learning, too. But you’ve gotta do it within the confines of the song. You can’t go too far afield. If you do, you’ve gotta learn how to get yourself back home.”
Contact reporter Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/lensblog.
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