AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Tuesday 10 February 2015
After deeply offending child sex abuse victims and members of the Jewish community during his evidence before a royal commission, a senior rabbi, Yosef Feldman, has resigned as director of an Orthodox religious centre.
The Yeshivah Centre, which runs schools, youth camps and synagogues, issued a statement on Wednesday to say it had accepted Feldman’s resignation.
Last week Feldman told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he “didn’t have a clue” that one of his staff members massaging the genitals of a young student might be a criminal matter, and that he was ignorant of mandatory reporting laws around child sex abuse.
On Monday he told the commission that paedophiles who had not abused children for many years and repented should be granted leniency and should not necessarily be reported to police.
His comments saw one child sex abuse victim, Manny Waks, walk out of the hearing before Melbourne’s county court, and prompted the executive council of Australian Jewry and other groups to call for Feldman’s resignation.
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