Navigate to News section

A Baltimore Sex Abuse Scandal, Uncovered

The ‘Baltimore Jewish Times,’ bankrupt, is featured in new documentary

by
Marc Tracy
March 27, 2012
Problems with Baltimore newspapers.(Wikipedia)
Problems with Baltimore newspapers.(Wikipedia)

A new documentary, Standing Silent, depicts how an epidemic of sexual abuse in Baltimore’s Orthodox community was uncovered by Phil Jacobs, an Orthodox reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times who had himself been abused as a child. The problem? In addition to the sexual abuse? In the future, we may not know about such stories, because the Baltimore Jewish Times is bankrupt, its assets being sold at the end of the week. One hopes that it will continue as a journalistic operation (and indeed, one prospective buyer is Washington Jewish Week, whose current editor-in-chief is Jacobs). There are too many good and important stories for it to go away.

Here’s the Standing Silent trailer:

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.