AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
After hearing long hours of testimony – often very shocking testimony – from child sex abuse victims and their families, Chabad rabbis and officials including a top Chabad lay leader, the Australian Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse at Chabad institutions has concluded its hearings.
Some highlights:
• Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, currently the head of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia and police chaplain admitted telling a victim that the victim was wrong to have sent a politely worded email to the Chabad community that asked people to cooperate with police investigating the abuse and to contact the police directly if they had been victimized.
Kluwgant’s asserted reason for doing this was because he had acted as a broker, bringing together police and top Chabad rabbis to discuss the child sex abuse issue and work out a way forward in which those top rabbis would sign a letter calling on the community to cooperate with the police investigation and to report any child sex abuse to the police. Judaism, Kluwgant said, wants one clear voice sounded in unity – not several voices, even if those several voices are all saying the same thing. The man’s email – Kluwgant claims he did not know the man was victim until later – ruined that.
Kluwgant admitted the email was polite, well written and “brilliant” and Kluwgant said he did not disagree with its content in any way. The only issue, Kluwgant said, is that it was sent. But Kluwgant went on to say that if he had known the man was a child sex abuse victim, he (Kluwgant) would have signed the email letter with him.
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