[1][2][3] It was praised and criticized for maintaining a website (since disabled) whose policy was to identify Jewish clergy and officials as alleged sexual predators, by name, whether or not they had been charged or sued.
[13][14] The center's webpage described involvement in a movement to abolish the statute of limitations for filing civil suit against alleged and convicted sex offenders.
"[3] Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for the Orthodox Agudath Israel of America group, also criticized the center for using material from anonymous blogs.
"[3] Jeff Bell, writing in the July 2008 issue of Catalyst magazine, went further, accusing the center's director of misusing the organization as a tool for defamation:
[6][19][20] Appearing under a pseudonym,[6][19] she claimed that she was a survivor of a secret, Jewish Satanic cult, in which she, her family, and others had sacrificed babies to the devil.
[6][7][19][20] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)[21] and a host of other Jewish organizations[22] sharply criticized Winfrey for publicizing an obviously false blood libel and thereby helping to perpetuate anti-Semitism.
[21][23] Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism criticized Winfrey in the New York Times for "insensitive manipulation" of someone who was "clearly mentally ill." He said the result "can only inflame the basest prejudices of ignorant people.
In 2009, Polin addressed the controversy directly:I have never made it a secret that I am a survivor of child sexual abuse, nor have I hidden the fact that I appeared on several television and radio shows back in the 1980s sharing my story in hopes of reaching out to other survivors and educating the general public about the issues and ramifications child abuse plays on its victims.
What outraged me the most was not the mistake Oprah made, yet the reaction from the Jewish world that I would speak my truth -- that I would share the fact that Jews also abuse their children at the same rate as those who are non-Jewish.