The verdict is in

Manny Waks
December 01, 2016

http://www.mannywaks.com/ajn-the-verdict-is-in-the-australian-jewish-news-editorial.html

​TWENTY-ONE months after the community was left shell-shocked by the revelations at the Royal Commission, the final report from last February’s hearings has now been released.
 
While most of the information came out during the course of the Royal Commission, the findings of the three independent commissioners with no links or associations to the community should not be overlooked.
 
The findings are based on evidence and testimony provided by rabbis, communal leaders, victims and others. In Melbourne, they found that the leadership failed and we believe it is now time for the final clean-out of the “old guard” – those in senior positions when children were abused, and victims and their families were re-victimised.
 
As the report states: “The leadership [since 2011] did not create an environment conducive to the communication of information about child sexual abuse. If anything, the mixed messages were likely to have produced inaction. If the Yeshivah Melbourne, the Committee of Management and Rabbi [Zvi Hirsch] Telsner had shown leadership, survivors of sexual abuse and their families and supporters might have received a very different response from the members of the Yeshivah Melbourne community.”
 
Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner was a trustee of the Yeshivah Centre, which oversaw, was responsible for, and appointed the Committee of Management.
 
It is therefore unthinkable that the new Yeshivah Centre, which was only recently formed, will have Rabbi Groner on its board, as well as the board of the Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah Colleges and Chabad Institutions of Victoria.
 
For Yeshivah to move forward, Rabbi Groner must vacate his positions. And Rabbi Telsner, who has been heavily criticised in the report, must withdraw himself from all unofficial leadership positions. He resigned last year, but still leads services and gives sermons within Yeshivah.
 
For those in Sydney this report will have different consequences.
 
Rabbi Yosef Feldman, who has taken the most hits from the report, is no longer associated with the school he once led and the entire management has changed hands. But that said, according to the report, little evidence has been put forward to show that steps have been taken to implement child-protection measures. The school disputes this, but the onus is now on the school to show that it has changed. It will be given the opportunity to do just that when the Royal Commission recalls both Yeshiva in Sydney and Yeshivah in Melbourne next March for a new hearing into the progress they have made.