Royal Commission: Rabbi Let Man Flee Because He "Did Not Know" about Sex Abuse Allegations

By Jane Lee
Sydney Morning Herald
February 6, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/national/royal-commission-rabbi-let-man-flee-because-he-did-not-know-about-sex-abuse-allegations-20150206-1386dr.html

The head of a Sydney rabbinical college says he was not aware that inappropriately touching a child could be criminal when one of his students left Australia amid accusations of child sexual abuse.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, whose father, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, is the head of Sydney's orthodox Chabad community, also told the royal commission into child sexual abuse on Friday that he believed:

Child sexual abuse was "not common" and did not affect more than 30 per cent of society

Understanding the nature of abuse and responding to abuse allegations were largely a matter of "common sense".

Since he and his father failed to prevent his student, known as AVL, from leaving Australia, he said he had not undertaken formal training in child sexual abuse

Rabbis, he said, should be trained in how to deal with child sexual abuse. But the rabbinical curriculum now only mentions abuse as it relates to Jewish law

Rabbi Feldman was the administrative director of the rabbinical college at orthodox Jewish institution Yeshiva in Sydney in 2002, when a parent complained that a man – known as AVL – had massaged their child while lying beside them.

Within two days of the complaint, AVL had left the country. Before leaving, AVL told Rabbi Feldman and his father he intended to return to America. They did not prevent him from doing so, and did not inform police when he left.

Rabbi Feldman told the commission that he had told AVL he believed his conduct was "highly inappropriate" under Jewish law. But he did not know the conduct was sexual or that AVL could be charged with a crime under Australian law.

"I didn't have a clue. I didn't think much about it from the legal perspective. As I said that wasn't my involvement ... and I don't deal with that sort of thing," he said.

Had Rabbi Feldman known then that AVL had also been accused of touching the child's genitals, he would have thought the conduct was criminal, he said.

The rabbi told the commission that while he had at that time been the administrative director of the college for about a decade, he was not aware of laws requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse.

As a "young man" of 33 at the time, he had relied on his father to tell him of such obligations: "I assumed he would tell me what's necessary."

He conceded that he was unfit to hold the position of director at the time given his lack of knowledge: "If that's the case that's the case. If you are telling me that's the case then I accept it."

Since then, the rabbi said he had read more about child sexual abuse, but had not undertaken any formal training. Detection of child abuse was, he said, largely a matter of "common sense": "I'm an extremely busy person so yes, I haven't had that feeling that I need to make it the highest or very high priority."

He now believed that under Jewish law "all child sex abuse allegations should be dealt with by the authorities, no matter what sort of outcome that would bring".

But Rabbi Feldman maintained that if a person other than the child's parent had heard a child may have been abused, without "reasonable grounds": "I feel that the first and main person should be a rabbi."

The hearing continues.