AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED FEBRUARY 03, 2015
MEMBERS of Melbourne’s Jewish community routinely used “standover tactics” to bully people who spoke out against child sexual abuse, the royal commission has heard.
Senior Rabbis also threatened “hellfire and damnation” for anyone who engaged in ‘mesirah’, the act of informing on a Jewish person to non Jewish authorities.
Zephania Waks, whose son Manny was abused by several Jewish leaders at Yeshiva College, said Rabbis openly told community members they were not to cooperate with police.
Mr Waks said after his son went public with his story of abuse their family was ostracised from the tight-knit community.
“That sealed our fate. It felt like we were suddenly reduced to nothing and had lost all our friends,” he said.
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