Roman Polanski: Justice or Mercy?

Should directing movies as haunting and beautiful as “The Pianist” give you a get out of jail free card? How about if the victim of your crime has forgiven you?

Director Roman Polanski was arrested a few days ago on charges from 30 years ago that he raped a 13-year-old girl. Polanski has admitted to having sex with the girl – however, he claims he thought she was much older, and the sex was consensual. Although he also allegedly plied her with drugs and alcohol. For the past 30 years Polanski has been living in exile from the United States, as there has been a warrant for his arrest. In a surprise move, the US and Swiss governments arrested him, and he is currently sitting in jail in Switzerland, awaiting extradition proceedings.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, now in her 40s, has publicly said she forgives him and has no desire to see him go to jail. Many of his friends, including Woody Allen (hmm, maybe he’s not the best character reference) have lobbied for his release. The noted French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy has asked whether the Swiss police don’t have other more serious criminal business to pursue. Levy said Polanski “perhaps had committed a youthful error.” Youthful error? Polanski was in his 40s when he committed the crime, the only thing youthful was his 13-year-old victim. According to CNN, fellow filmmaker Otto Weisser said “He’s a brilliant guy, and he made a little mistake 32 years ago. What a shame for Switzerland.” A little mistake? Would Weisser feel that way if such a thing happened to his daughter? Why should it make any difference if he’s “brilliant” and “millions and millions of people love his work?”

We’ve just come through Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgment, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. What guidance does the Jewish tradition give us on how Mr. Polanski should be treated? Justice? Or Mercy?

This episode provides a fascinating case study in how when we turn to Torah for guidance, we have to look at the principles we learn from Torah, not the necessarily the specific statutes.

What happens in this case if we look at the specific rules in the Torah? The Torah has different rules for whether a maiden (i.e., 13 year old girl) is betrothed to another or not, where the attack takes place, etc. In this situation, where the girl was not betrothed to someone, whether the sex was rape or consensual, the man would be obligated to pay a fine to the father and to marry the girl. Clearly moral expectations in the Biblical era were different than today – no one would suggest that a 13 year old girl who was raped should marry her attacker, or that he should get off with paying a fine to her father.

So if we can’t go by the explicit rules in the Torah, what happens if we turn to the values we learn from Torah?

There are two competing values that come into play – values that we lived through on the High Holidays. Judgment and Mercy. Rosh Hashana was the Day of Judgment, when God looks at us and decides who will live and who will die. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, when Mercy is ascendant, and knowing we are not worthy, we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court and plead for our lives.

The Torah is clearly concerned with justice. One of the most famous passages in the Torah, inscribed over the entrance to the US Supreme Court, is “justice, justice you shall pursue.” We should not be impressed one way or another that Roman Polanski is a great director – the Torah commands us not to favor the rich, or to favor the poor, but rather to treat each the same. We are commanded not to take bribes in judgment, not to distort judgment. Evil is not to be tolerated – for heinous crimes we are told to “burn the evil from your midst,” murder is said to pollute the land itself. When a community tolerates immorality – like Sodom and Gommorah – it is destroyed. God is said to visit the sins of a father on his children to the 3^rd and 4^th generation.

All of these sources would suggest that the fact that the crime was 30 years ago should not make a difference. In fact the idea of a statute of limitations is, as far as I know, absent in the Jewish tradition. It is never too late for justice.

On the other hand, we have sources that speak about God’s mercy and kindness. On Yom Kippur, we beat our breasts, confess our sins, and pray for mercy. We cry out to God as Moses taught us to cry out, “Lord, merciful and forgiving God, lifting sin and transgression…” We have prayers where we pray that God’s mercy and compassion should conquer his anger. The Talmud tells stories of rabbis running out of their house after burglars, yelling out, “I give those things to you!” so that the burglar shouldn’t be guilty of theft. Just as it is a commandment to do repentance, it is a commandment to accept someone’s repentance. God may visit the sins of a father on his children 3 and 4 generations, but his mercy extends a thousand generations.

If Roman Polanski has repented – and I can’t say for sure if he has or not, I don’t know his heart – and if his victim has forgiven him, which she has – do we need to hunt him down and punish him? Or can we just say it was a long time ago, it may have been consensual, the victim has forgiven him, let it go?

Opinions vary – but in this case I side with the 70% of the public surveyed rather than with Mr. Polanski’s friends. He needs to be brought to judgment.

There is a saying “to err is human, to forgive is divine.” In this case, we should leave the forgiving to the divine, and do the judging ourselves.

Judaism teaches that we are to have the utmost respect for one another: we are all created in the divine image, we all contain a reflection of God. As such we are obligated to treat each and every one of us as precious, as special, as embodying some of the beauty and purity of our God. What Roman Polanski did cheapens us. He disregarded the inappropriateness of his behavior – after all, he WAS 40 something, and even if she was a “mature” 13 year old, how old did he think she was? I’ve known 13 year olds who could pass for 15 or 16, there aren’t so many who would pass for 18.

I admit to having a bias. I have a 13 year old daughter. If anything like this happened to her, I would certainly be utterly devastated, and I would fear for the lifelong trauma it would bring on my daughter. Society has an obligation to protect its most vulnerable members – which is why the Torah commands us in several places to take special care of the widow and orphan. To let Roman Polanski off the hook would be to say that what he did was not such a big deal. It would say, well, it’s been a long time, the victim has forgiven him, it’s not a big deal. SORRY. It IS a big deal. For a 40-something man to have sex with a 13 year old, consensual or not, is a horrible exploitation and violation of a young person who is at a delicate stage of development. To protect all 13 year old girls, it is vitally important that society send the message that this behavior is not appropriate, it is never acceptable, and it doesn’t matter if it happened 30 years ago, it doesn’t matter if the perpetrator is rich, famous, and/or talented, and it doesn’t matter if the victim eventually forgives him – such behavior is not acceptable, it will not be condoned, it will not be tolerated.

It is good that the victim has been able to forgive Roman Polanski and move on with her life. I’m sure it is much healthier for her psychologically than if she were still hanging on to hate and ill will. However, society as a whole cannot forgive him so easily. To do so would
be to say his actions weren’t all that bad. Polanski needs to be punished not because he is a threat to others – presumably he learned his lesson, and in his 70s the fires aren’t burning as hot anyway – he needs to be punished because allowing him to escape the consequences of his actions would be to diminish the significance of his crime in the eyes of many people. It would reduce the psychological barriers to others who might contemplate such crimes. We must see justice carried out: as Psalm 106 says, “Happy are they that keep justice, that do righteousness at all times.”