Outrage over rabbi’s paedophile comments

IOL
February 11, 2015

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/outrage-over-rabbi-s-paedophile-comments-1.1816636#.VNuCyfnF-So

An orthodox rabbi says a prayer at an Holocaust memorial.

Sydney -

The director of an ultra-orthodox yeshiva in Sydney resigned on Wednesday after his comments on paedophiles and apparent tolerance of historical child sex abuse caused an outcry.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman last week said not all sex abuse cases warranted police intervention and that courts could offer leniency to paedophiles who now no longer offend, in comments to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

He apologised on Wednesday to the Jewish community and the wider Australian community and said he would step down, The Australian Jewish News reported.

His testimony came as the national inquiry honed in on instances of sexual assault on children at yeshiva-run schools and other Jewish institutes in Australia.

The rabbi also said when he was informed of an alleged case at the yeshiva in 2002, he did not know it could be a crime for an adult to touch the genitals of a child.

The Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia strongly criticised Feldman and said his statements showed he was no longer fit to serve the community.

Rabbi Feldman is still the rabbi of the Southern Sydney Synagogue, Jewish News reported, quoting unnamed sources as saying that the local board would discuss his future in the coming days.

Victims of abuse at Jewish schools over the past few decades, who had testified of cover-ups by religious leaders, also expressed outrage.