AUSTRALIA
Galus Australis
By Vivien Resovsky:
Recently I attended the first International Congress for Child Protection Organisations in Jewish Communities [the Congress] that was held at the Haruv Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Congress was sponsored by Haruv and Magen, an Israeli child protection organisation in Beit Shemesh.
I believe that in order to really understand the problems in Melbourne we need to understand the overall problem and culture underpinning the way in which Ultra Orthodox communities deal with child sexual abuse.
However it is important to note that here is one big difference between Melbourne and most other Jewish communities in how child sexual abuse is dealt with. In most countries community services for Ultra Orthodox steams of Judaism are usually delivered separately, because the Ultra Orthodox way of life and customs are so different to less religious streams of Judaism. That is not the case in Melbourne.
In Melbourne child protection is lead by the Chabad dominated volunteer organization The Jewish Taskforce Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault (The Taskforce). Although the vast majority of the Melbourne Jewish community are not Ultra Orthodox and don’t relate to or even understand the Chabad way of life, The Taskforce assert to be delivering a sensitive and unified response to child sexual abuse that covers all steams of Judaism. Thus the way in which all our children are protected is informed by Ultra orthodox “experts” such as USA based psychologist Dr David Pelcovitz and Israeli based Debbie Gross who works with the Ultra Orthoodox in family violence.
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