AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News
THE Rabbinical Council of NSW (RCNSW) has stated that it made a mistake when it allowed Rabbi Yossi Feldman to remain president when, in 2011, some of his views regarding child sexual abuse allegations were made public by The AJN.
The AJN called on Rabbi Feldman to step down as president of the RCNSW when it published leaked emails, in which Rabbi Feldman put forward a view that a victim should go to a rabbi, not the police.
Rabbi Feldman stepped aside as president for several weeks but was then reinstated as president until the 2012 annual general meeting.
This week at the Royal Commission it was revealed that in 2011 Rabbi Feldman urged fellow rabbis not to call on victims to go the police because it would hurt his “friend”, and now convicted child sexual abuser, David Cyprys, argued that too much media attention would lead “fake victims” to come forward, labelled victim Manny Waks a “phony attention seeker” and put forward a view that a victim of child sexual abuse doesn’t know if the perpetrator will reoffend and therefore must go to a rabbi, and not the police.
“The RCNSW views with distress and dismay the increasingly sordid revelations that are emerging from the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Melbourne and Sydney,” the RCNSW executive said in a statement this week.
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