Action on #MeToo Violations

In the ongoing painful saga of #MeToo reports in the Jewish world, there’s heartening news. The Association for Jewish Studies president Christine Hayes announced in November the creation of a formal Committee on Sexual Misconduct, following two years of work by a Sexual Misconduct Task Force, chaired by Laura Levitt, Temple University Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies and Gender. Paths to addressing sexual misconduct by academics in Jewish Studies now include an “ombuds” system and direct, detailed ways to discuss and report violations with strict confidentiality. The AJS website: “The Committee constitutes an accessible and trained body that can answer inquiries, provide information about its procedures, facilitate the resolution of informal complaints, and fairly and expeditiously hear formal complaints of sexual misconduct.”