AUSTRALIA
The Australian
FEBRUARY 11, 2015
Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne
A RABBI condemned by Jewish leaders for his comments regarding child sex abuse “hype” and the need for pedophiles to receive greater leniency has resigned from the board of Sydney’s Yeshiva Centre.
Rabbi Yosef Feldman, a rabbinical director at the Yeshiva Centre in Bondi and son of the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know it was illegal for a man to
touch a child’s genitals when he had to deal with an abuse complaint in 2002.
His evidence to the royal commission provoked a firestorm in the Jewish community, with the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia yesterday adding its voice to those calling for Rabbi Feldman to end his pastoral and community involvement.
Today the Yeshiva Centre said Rabbi Feldman had resigned his position as a director on its Board of Management, including his administrative responsibilities.
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