AUSTRALIA
The Age
February 21, 2015
Rachel Kleinman, Jane Lee
As Melbourne’s Jewish congregations gather in synagogues for Saturday’s Sabbath, many feel shattered and shamed by the grim truths exposed during hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.
And one Orthodox Melbourne rabbi said he and his colleagues were “tainted by failure”. Rabbi Ian Goodhart, of Blake Street’s modern Orthodox synagogue in Caulfield, told congregation members this week that a number of rabbis “were growing increasingly disillusioned with the conduct of their colleagues” and the lack of credible rabbinic leadership.
Tensions between rabbis are clearly mounting, following a two-week hearing that examined how Yeshivah centres in Melbourne and Sydney, which belong to the worldwide ultra-Orthodox Chabad stream of Judaism, handled horrific cases of abuse in their midst.
In a joint statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, Rabbi Goodhart and fellow Orthodox rabbi James Kennard threatened to form a breakaway leadership group. They called for immediate reform to the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia and Victoria’s rabbinical council and increased accountability.
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.