AUSTRALIA
Galus Australis
By Bracha Rafael
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) has released a strong statement regarding Rabbi Telsner’s testimony before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Rabbi Telsner was asked to explain Rabbi Groner’s statement “I thought we had cured him,” referring to David Cyprus. Rabbi Groner is Rabbi Telsner’s predecessor at Yeshivah shule and father-in-law.
Having established that Rabbi Telsner considered it possible that a former child sex offender could be “in control of himself” (and thus safe to work amongst children), the line of questioning then turned to Rabbi Telsner’s attitudes towards homosexuality.
The questions pertaining to homosexuality and paedophilia are reprinted in full below. The entire transcript can be found here.
Q. Do you have the same belief about persons of homosexual orientation not attracted to children?
A. I really couldn’t tell you a definite answer. I don’t know.
Q. So you have distinct beliefs in respect to paedophiles and homosexual persons not attracted to children?
A. Well, there’s been so much talk about one – discussing about one and the other. I would rather – I wouldn’t want to say something I’m not so sure about.
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