Rabbi Yosef Feldman resigns as director of Yeshivah Centre

By Melissa Davey
Guardian
February 10, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/11/rabbi-yosef-feldman-resigns-as-director-of-yeshivah-centre

Rabbi Yosef Feldman’s comments to the royal commission on Monday prompted one child sex abuse victim to walk out of the hearing.

After deeply offending child sex abuse victims and members of the Jewish community during his evidence before a royal commission, a senior rabbi, Yosef Feldman, has resigned as director of an Orthodox religious centre.

The Yeshivah Centre, which runs schools, youth camps and synagogues, issued a statement on Wednesday to say it had accepted Feldman’s resignation.

Last week Feldman told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he “didn’t have a clue” that one of his staff members massaging the genitals of a young student might be a criminal matter, and that he was ignorant of mandatory reporting laws around child sex abuse.

On Monday he told the commission that paedophiles who had not abused children for many years and repented should be granted leniency and should not necessarily be reported to police.

His comments saw one child sex abuse victim, Manny Waks, walk out of the hearing before Melbourne’s county court, and prompted the executive council of Australian Jewry and other groups to call for Feldman’s resignation.

At times, Feldman had smirked during his evidence, and was often warned by counsel assisting, Maria Gerace, to focus on answering her questions rather than going off on tangents.

On Wednesday the Yeshivah Centre issued a statement to say Feldman had stepped down.

“The Yeshivah Centre thanks Rabbi Yosef Feldman for his years of selfless dedication to the centre,” it said.

“The Yeshivah Centre reiterates its staunch commitment to protect victims of abuse, including full compliance with authorities and legal procedures.”

As recently as Monday night, Feldman was criticising the media for its reporting of his evidence and attacking journalists on social media.

By Wednesday, he was apologising.

“I apologise to anyone in the Rabbinate, the Jewish community and the wider Australian community who may have been embarrassed or ashamed by my views, words, understandings, recordings or emails about child sexual abuse or any other matter,” Feldman said.

“In the future I will be more careful with my words, so that they are only a source of pride to the Jewish and general community.

“I commit to undertake formal training and education on how to identify, handle and report abuse allegations.”

Waks, who gave evidence of his abuse to the commission last week, said he welcomed the resignation but that Feldman’s should be the first of many.

“It’s a welcome development,” he said. “But there are many others who now need to resign.”

The commission, which is examining abuse within the orthodox Yeshivah Chabad community for the first time since it began its work in 2013, has heard from victims and rabbis that senior religious leaders knew about abuse allegations, but did not go to police.

Feldman’s father, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, told the commission last week that he did not feel it was necessary to tell police that an alleged abuser, identified only as AVL, was about to leave the country.

On Monday the commission heard that Rabbi Abraham Glick had cancelled the scholarship of a Yeshivah student who reported to Yeshivah management that he had been sexually abused.

Glick is due to appear before the commission later this week.