Elliot Pasik Esq.

Yasher koach, Feivel. Until I read your post, I didn’t know that fingerprints have a medical and scientific purpose – gripping, holding, preventing blisters.

We’re all familiar with the use of fingerprints as an identifier. No ten sets of fingerprints have ever been shown to be alike. Fingerprints both solve crime, and deter crime. The FBI has a data base of about 60 million fingerprints. Millions of background checks are conducted through the FBI by state police departments, and also prospective employers, such as public and private schools, who do not want to hire dangerous persons with criminal histories who should not work near children, e.g., convicted violent offenders. The history of fingerprinting is very interesting. The scientific discoverer is a man named Sir Frances Galton, from England, who began studying fingerprinting about a century ago, and promoting its use as a criminal justice tool. There are three basic fingerprint patterns: loops, whorls, and arches. The arch is similar to a rainbow; the whorl is a circle; the loop is like a bobby pin. Galton, a genius, was also interested in differences between the races, and he studied whether there were any differences in fingerprint patterns among about 13 ethnic groups. Only we Jews stood out – he found that we have fewer arches than other groups he studied.

The fingerprinting of all employees by yeshivas is essential to assure the safety of our children. I’ve been advocating a law that would mandate all nonpublic schools in New York State to fingerprint and background their employees. Even without such a law, all parents should encourage their yeshivas to voluntarily fingerprint and background check their prospective employees. The major frum organizations have endorsed fingerprinting and background checks.

It is said Rav Yisroel Salanter once spent one full hour studying a leaf, contemplating all the wonders that Hashem had created in order for this leaf to exist. Fingerprints are also wonderous, particularly when we consider that they can be used to protect our children.