AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Wednesday 4 February 2015
The testimony of a senior orthodox Jewish rabbi condemning the response of orthodox Yeshivah centres to child sexual abuse has sent shockwaves through the community, victims say.
On Wednesday Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a senior judge of the Sydney Beth Din rabbinical court, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse a “culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms” had pervaded the thinking of the centres in Sydney and Melbourne.
Manny Waks, who was abused by staff at the Melbourne Yeshivah Centre, told Guardian Australia he was left “speechless” by Gutnick’s statement to the commission that a senior religious figure, Rabbi Boruch Lesches, knew about abuse but did not report it.
Gutnick told the commission: “I’m prepared to say that Rabbi Lesches lied when he said that he didn’t know about the abuse by convicted child abuser Daniel ‘Gug’ Hayman.”
Waks said Gutnick’s testimony was “empowering and profound” and had deeply affected victims.
“I don’t think people quite understand the impact of Gutnick’s statement within the orthodox Jewish community, and even the broader Jewish community,” Waks said.
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