AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks
The Australian Jewish News
Editorial
1 December 2016
TWENTY-ONE months after the community was left shell-shocked by the revelations at the Royal Commission, the final report from last February’s hearings has now been released.
While most of the information came out during the course of the Royal Commission, the findings of the three independent commissioners with no links or associations to the community should not be overlooked.
The findings are based on evidence and testimony provided by rabbis, communal leaders, victims and others. In Melbourne, they found that the leadership failed and we believe it is now time for the final clean-out of the “old guard” – those in senior positions when children were abused, and victims and their families were re-victimised.
As the report states: “The leadership [since 2011] did not create an environment conducive to the communication of information about child sexual abuse. If anything, the mixed messages were likely to have produced inaction. If the Yeshivah Melbourne, the Committee of Management and Rabbi [Zvi Hirsch] Telsner had shown leadership, survivors of sexual abuse and their families and supporters might have received a very different response from the members of the Yeshivah Melbourne community.”
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