AUSTRALIA
J-Wire
February 9, 2015 by Roz Tarszisz
Rabbi Yossef Feldman completes his evidence…and another victim reads his statement.
The Yeshiva Centre rabbi who made public his support of a resolution that encouraged child sexual abuse victims to come foward to civil authorities was not happy with the identity of a perpetrator of child sex abuse being made public.
He also had difficulty with the idea of a perpetrator going to prison 25 years after the offences took place.
Rabbi Yosef Feldman made a public statement in July 2011 via The Australian Jewish News in which he clarified his personal views. He stated unequivocally that there were no longer any grey areas on the issue of mesira (non reporting to authorities). This meant that victims of child sexual abuse should definitely go to civil authorities without fear of retribution from within the Jewish community.
After lengthy questioning by Counsel assisting the Commission, Maria Gerace, Feldman said that he would prefer that publicity was not given to child sexual abuse cases as he feared it could encourage non-genuine , or “fake” victims to come forward.
Feldman appeared to have been fixated on whether public statements by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria and both the Sydney and Melbourne Beth Dins were the catalyst that propelled child abuse victims to come forward. He appears convinced that encouraging people to come forward is not a good thing and might “encourage people to give false accusations.”
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