Leaders Should Quit over Abuse: Rabbis

The Australian
November 30, 2016

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/leaders-should-quit-over-abuse-rabbis/news-story/822df6f02906557829d1cb2811ffce24

The leaders of Sydney and Melbourne's Orthodox Jewish communities who failed to protect children from being abused should stand down, rabbis say.

The child abuse royal commission has found leaders of Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi failed to act on reports of abuse.

The peak body of the Australasian rabbinate said child sexual abuse was allowed to continue because of actions or inaction by some rabbis and community leaders, while victims were not always believed or supported.

Those who the royal commission had identified as not fulfilling their legal obligations to protect children should stand down from their public positions, the rabbinical councils of Australia and New Zealand, NSW and Victoria said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

"We believe that those who denigrated or undermined the victims have lost their moral right to serve as leaders in our communities.

"The rabbinate must demonstrate that Judaism and the Jewish community will not tolerate child sexual abuse and those who perpetrate it, and must support those who have suffered."