AUSTRALIA
J-Wire
February 6, 2015 by J-Wire Staff
The Rabbinical Administrator of Yeshiva Gedolah,Bondi, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, present at a July 2002 meeting with name protected AVL and his father, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, admitted that AVL, a student at the Yeshiva accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour, was a relative by marriage.
Yeshiva Gedolah is a tertiary education centre for young men training to become rabbis. AVL returned home to New York very soon after his meeting with the two rabbis.
At the meeting, AVL was told he would not be ordained. When AVL asked what would happen if he left Australia, Rabbi Pinchus told him words to the effect that it was not their decision what AVL wanted to do with his life. However if AVL left Australia, he would not be ordained.
During a separate conversation to the meeting, AVL told Rabbi Yosef that he lay down with the child and had just been massaging him. Rabbi Yosef didn’t think in legal terms about what might be a crime and should be reported to police.
“From a Jewish law perspective, this was highly improper” said Rabbi Yosef.
However, he didn’t see the lying down and massaging a child as necessarily being sexual.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.