AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Tuesday 10 February 2015
A child sex abuse victim has described management of orthodox Jewish Yeshivah centres as “rotten to its core”, saying he often questioned whether he made the right decision in coming forward.
The witness, identified only as AVB, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse about how he had been abused when he was 11 years old at the Yeshivah College in Bondi by a Yeshivah security guard visiting from Melbourne, David Cyprys.
He was also abused by another employee, Daniel “Gug” Hayman.
There was a “fundamental cultural dynamic” within the management of Yeshivah – which operates schools, youth services and synagogues – that meant victims became targets and were discouraged from speaking out, AVB said on Tuesday.
“Until we address it nothing is going to change,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what [Yeshivah management] policy might be, if the foundation’s rotten to its core. I often wonder whether I made the right decision in coming forward.”
Appearing before the commission at Melbourne’s county court had also been difficult, AVB said.
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