AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News
AHEAD of the announcement that Rabbi Yossi Feldman would be stepping down from his roles at Yeshiva in Sydney, the principal of Melbourne’s largest Jewish school Rabbi James Kennard called for resignations among the leadership of Melbourne Yeshivah.
Revealing that he himself quit the Rabbinical Council of Victoria over its failure to call for Yeshivah leaders to be held to account in 2011, he wrote on Facebook, “While anyone who held a position of leadership in the Yeshivah community in the period when these terrible mistakes were made remains in such a position today, the community is not able to say that it has learnt and it has changed.
“The resignations that are required need not be an acceptance of personal responsibility, but an acknowledgement that if abuse, or a failure to deal properly with abusers, took place on an individual’s ‘watch’ then it is honourable and right for such an individual to step down.”
While not naming any individuals, his call would include Rabbi Avrohom Glick who holds a senior position within the Yeshivah community. Rabbi Glick was principal of Yeshivah in Melbourne when according to the testimony of victims and their families allegations of child sexual abuse were brought to the attention of rabbis, but not reported to police, in the 1980s.
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