TO MY JEWISH COMMUNITY: YOU TAUGHT ME TO THINK
GABRIELLA PEARL KATZ

To my Jewish community,

I have grown up in a community which has nurtured and nourished me. A community that has provided me with all the tools to question my existence and to pursue a life of meaning, purpose, and happiness. Truly, I attribute my intellect and my love for learning to my Jewish education at Mount Scopus Memorial College (MSMC) and more generally the Jewish based values I hold dear. Indeed, the presupposition of the Talmudic approach to life is that rigorous inquiry and rationality is better than an unquestioning and submissive existence. To be mindless is to lose touch with the heart of the Talmud, one of the greatest examples of critical thinking. However, while the community has taught me lessons of deep thinking and bold action, I have felt disillusioned by members and leaders who have persistently failed to live by those values when it matters most.

The plethora of sexual misconduct and grooming allegations, substantiated by an external review, which came to light in December 2021 against a former senior teacher at MSMC were deeply shocking and disturbing. It should have been a watershed moment for our community. Why does it feel like not much has changed and that things are back to ‘normal’? More specifically, why does it feel like this devastating experience has not informed or changed our community’s understanding of child safety and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)? Where was the discourse in Jewish media outlets? Where was the provision of counselling for students? Where was the open discussion and transparency from community leaders? I fear that the lack of discourse and questioning of the allegations at MSMC evidenced that our community wanted to sweep it under the rug. Recent allegations against an 88-year-old caretaker at Caulfield Hebrew Shule (CHC) remind us that the problems surrounding CSA in our community are far from solved.

The Royal Commission public hearing into Australian Jewish institutions that were involved in repeat instances of CSA, cover-ups as well as intimidation of victims has certainly led to ground-breaking and ongoing changes within the Jewish community. But nearly seven years later issues of CSA are pervasive. We are so quick to criticise the Ultra-Orthodox community for the way they have previously responded to CSA that we have become incapable of recognising it in our own backyard. It is easier to blame a section of the Jewish community when they are ‘other’, or not part of what you understand to be your community. However, when the MSMC and CHC allegations surfaced, the members who condemned and were disgusted by the abuse that occurred at Yeshiva disappeared into thin air, nowhere to be seen. There was no public show of support for the victims. There were no opinion piece articles. There were no social media posts. The truth is that CSA must be recognised no matter where it occurs. But it appears to only concern my Jewish community when it happens in Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox settings. Where are the people critically condemning such gross misconduct wherever it happens, completely and with no qualifications?
 
I have spoken with many people whose personal connection to a community, a family, and a shule has completely blindsided them from properly grappling with the fact that members of this community can be sexual predators. Indeed, I can understand that many may struggle reconciling their personal relationships and the tight-knit nature of our community with such gross allegations. But personal feelings ought not trump the absolute denunciation of such gross misconduct and breach of human and children’s rights. We must stop protecting predators by invoking values of personal loyalty at the expense of vulnerable and victimised young people. It seems that basic human rights are not really an indisputable standard in our community. That is, the right of a female to freely and safely attend shule. The right of a female to feel free to attend high school without worrying that she will be a victim of a predator. The community’s response to the allegations felt like a deliberate choice to choose a ‘side’ over a principle.

To the reader of this letter: what questions were raised for you after reading ‘Students accused senior teacher of misconduct at prestigious Melbourne school’ in The Age, published December 31, 2021? Did you just accept the article as it was, like reading the football scores after a match? Perhaps you thought that what you read sounded terrible but that it was fixed with the solutions outlined in the article. Maybe you contemplated that you are missing many pieces of information? Nevertheless, I was disappointed by the reluctance of individuals to rigorously inquire into what had just unfolded. It felt like no one was grappling with the key questions: Which other staff noticed that the school environment was not conducive to child safety? What culture normalised such behaviour that it went unchecked for 20 plus years?
These are some questions that should have been asked. The reluctance by individuals to question has left me feeling ostracised and I cannot help but think that members of this community really don’t care.

When you are in a position of privilege, having received top-notch education, access to plenty of financial resources, and you live in a community like the one I was raised in, you have a duty to remove your blinkers and see such a relationship in its true colours. When you have the skills and resources to subject events to critical analysis, you are morally responsible and accountable for the blinkers you choose to wear. We must not fool ourselves. What I fear is that my community has failed to recognise what happened at MSMC and CHC was part of a broader pattern. A pattern whereby male predators go unchecked for years, enabled by poor child safety policy enforcement, by unquestioning and ill-educated staff and where victims are not empowered or encouraged to disclose abuse. The damaging outcome is that silence can be a form of survival for many victims who have not come forward. It is little wonder why victims wait decades to come forward, or I am sure for many, decide to not report their abuse, harassment, or assault at all.

Indeed, the fact that grotesque predatory behaviour happens in our community does not mean that it should not be labelled for what it is. Justice must not remain elusive for the aggrieved because the perpetrator is a member of a community you feel attached to.

An edited version of this article first appeared in The Australian Jewish News.

VoiCSA notes with grave concern the joint statement issued on 31 January 2022 by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) and Blake Street Hebrew Congregation (BSHC) (below) regarding the child protection policies of BSHC.

The statement refers to a letter which the JCCV apparently wrote to BSHC in December questioning the quality of BSHC’s Child Protection Policy. The JCCV appears to have then forwarded that letter to The Age, who referred to it in an article on 31 December 2021.

In a stunning reversal of its initial position, the JCCV now claims the letter was 'written in error'. It now asserts that 'BSHC has a strong child protection policy in place'. Similarly, BSHC states that 'having again reviewed our Child Protection Policy and procedures, we are able to confirm that they are of the highest quality'. Neither the JCCV nor BSHC provide any evidence of the Policy having been independently reviewed by experts in the field and it is unclear on what basis they now claim the policy is 'strong'.

In December, VoiCSA engaged an independent consultancy firm with expertise in child protection to audit BSHC’s full suite of Child Protection documents. The audit (below), conducted by Ms Andrea O'Byrne (formerly the Deputy Regional Director with the Department of Human Services when the Victorian Child Safe standards were developed), found that BSHC’s documents only 'partially met' each of the seven Child Safe Standards and identified numerous areas of concern.

Late last year, multiple allegations of serious misconduct were made against former Mount Scopus Memorial College long-time director of student development, Mr Jared Alford, who VoiCSA understands is a member of BSHC and had been engaged as a volunteer at the synagogue. The allegations relate to his conduct while employed at Mount Scopus and independent of his involvement with BSHC.  

VoiCSA wrote to BSHC on two occasions in December (below) and reminded them of their obligations in connection with the allegations, including under Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme and the recently introduced Failure to Protect offence.

VoiCSA also highlighted potential historical breaches by BSHC of the Child Safe Standards, which may not have had a Child Protection Policy in place until September 2021, despite this being mandated since 2016. VoiCSA also noted the absence of a policy specifically dealing with Persons of Concern and the real possibility of victims/survivors or their families having to face the accused in synagogue. We suggested that BSHC may benefit from engaging an independent and internationally recognised organisation such as Child Wise to assist with compliance with the Standards, which are set to become more onerous in July 2022.

The report commissioned by VoiCSA also includes Incident Recommendations (below), which describes what would be a best practice response by BSHC in the situation. Disappointingly, the response to date has been completely inadequate. We specifically note that Ms O'Byrne has stated that BSHC 'have not created a child safe environment to sufficiently encourage safe disclosure of past or current allegations from any incident involving any congregant'.

Please see the additional material below.

In 2012, I established Tzedek, Australia’s first and only victim support and advocacy organisation dealing with child sexual abuse in the Jewish community. I established the organisation to support Jewish victims/survivors, to hold to account individuals/institutions who were either perpetrators or involved in cover-ups/intimidation, and to raise awareness and educate the community about this issue.

We had many incredible achievements, and due to the nature of our work, we obviously attracted some controversy and criticism.
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I ended my involvement with Tzedek in 2014 after the Board of Directors that I had appointed felt that the organisation would be better off without me – apparently I was causing them too many headaches. They felt that the hard work had already been done, and all they now needed to do was to focus on educating the community. Admittedly, I was offended and I vehemently disagreed with the Board but nevertheless, decided to depart for the benefit of the organisation and community. (And my now ex-wife and I felt that it was time to leave the toxic environment in Melbourne.)

I left the organisation in the hands of then President Josh Bornstein and his replacement Danny Schwarz, essentially the two architects of my departure.

As many of those around me could attest, it was very clear to us that it was sadly, the beginning of the end for Tzedek. This is despite the fact that I handed over Tzedek to them in a very healthy state – it was a serious player in the national and international scene, and I secured significant funding from both government and philanthropists.

Over the years, I have watched from afar Tzedek’s horrific demise. They managed to kick numerous own-goals, lost the respect of the community and became completely ineffective and irrelevant.

Eventually, Tzedek announced a merger with SECASA (South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault), an amazing organisation that I admire and respect, and with whom I had previously worked. But as I noted at the time, I did not agree with the move, as I believed the Jewish community needed to have its own, unique organisation so it could deal with matters appropriately by people from within (rather than to provide support through another organisation, which may receive some cultural sensitivity training and the like).

In the past year, Tzedek has published a single Facebook post. That is, until last week, where Tzedek published the following post:

Recently the Department of Social Services ceased funding Tzedek for the National Redress Scheme. As a result the Tzedek name will be returned to the Jewish Community, ceasing to exist as a separate service within Monash Health SECASA.  SECASA will continue to provide a culturally appropriate and sensitive service to the Jewish Community through our existing programs.

This has shocked and angered me to my core. Besides from the blood, sweat and tears that I personally invested in founding and leading this critical organisation, the Jewish community has lost an institution it never should have lost. Moreover, the content of their statement is absurd.

Firstly, I initially secured Tzedek a three-year funding arrangement, which was later extended for at least another two years. I also secured Tzedek significant funds from philanthropists and donors. To essentially blame the Federal Government for shutting down Tzedek is disingenuous at best. What has the organisation leadership – under the presidency of Danny Schwarz – been doing for the past six+ years since my departure in terms of raising funds? And as the Royal Commission concluded a few years ago, when was the last bit of funding Tzedek received from the Government?

As an aside, I’m also not sure whether they have a right to state that ‘the Tzedek name will be returned to the Jewish community’, whatever this actually means. (It wasn’t really the Jewish community’s name to begin with, as I chose and registered it.)

So we now have a situation where we know that around 1 in 10 children in our community will be sexually abused before the age of 18, multiple perpetrators have been jailed for abusing children within several Jewish communal institutions and there is no communal organisation providing support to victims or working with institutions to prevent child sexual abuse.

Despite the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria being called to the Royal Commission around six years ago, there is a very limited community response to addressing this issue. At the same time, some communal organisations continue to operate without child safe policies in breach of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act (2005). Child sexual abuse is the single most prevalent health problem facing our community and relatively nothing is being done about it and victims/survivors are once again, alone.

While I travelled to Australia mainly for the forthcoming Malka Leifer hearing, I am also here for other VoiCSA work.
Around a year ago, when it became apparent that Tzedek had failed, my colleagues and I decided to launch a local Australian arm of our Israel-based international organisation, VoiCSA.

I am pleased to share that we have already taken many steps to progress our work here in Australia. With the incredible and generous pro bono assistance from our lawyers Arnold Bloch Leibler and our accountants/auditors Grant Thornton, we are already registered in Australia, including with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. We are currently in the process of applying for tax-deductible status. And, most importantly, we are already on the ground working and planning ahead.

As was the case when I founded Tzedek around 10 years ago, it is again left to victims/survivors and our supporters to address the issue of child sexual abuse in our community. We will build up VoiCSA in Australia, as we have done internationally, and be there to support victims/survivors, raise awareness, educate, advocate and anything else that needs to be done.

​I hope and expect that this will be my final post about the recent outrage caused throughout Australia as a result of the actions of a segment within the Jewish community. I would like to clarify a few points:

• I thought long and hard about whether to publish my Facebook post regarding the illegal engagement party (with the video) and the Minyanim (prayer groups) and, in hindsight, I fully stand behind my decision to do so, albeit well after the media had got hold of it.
• There are small segments in the Jewish community who have a view of the world that the law does not apply to them. These people seem to be over-represented within ultra-Orthodox circles where this attitude is a cultural issue. This often results in poor actions of members of their community bringing shame on the entire community. Whenever this happens, the Jewish communal leadership prefers unity and having to beg the media not to paint us all with the same brush over holding them to account. This hasn’t been the first scandal from that part of the community and, unfortunately, won’t be the last.
• It's hypocritical and unrealistic to now call on the community to unite as we deal with the fallout caused by those who refused to abide by the same restrictions as the rest of us. We have been badly let down by our own. This is not a case where we should unite in solidarity, as it would be if there was an external threat facing us. We should be united in condemning the conduct which created this situation and distancing ourselves from those actions. Where were the calls from communal leaders on the front page of The Australian Jewish News in recent weeks to unite in compliance with Covid restrictions when it was well known that there were large pockets within the ultra-Orthodox community not complying with restrictions? Where was the communal and Rabbinic leadership going to the ultra-Orthodox community and warning of the Chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) that would come if they were caught breaking the laws designed to protect them en-masse? It has been well known for many months that misinformation about fake cures were being promulgated by some in the ultra-Orthodox leadership, mask wearing and QR code check-ins were mocked and illegal gatherings were happening. The communal leadership turned a blind eye for the sake of some misguided vision of unity and now the entire community pays the price. 
• It’s distressing and unacceptable that the hosts of the engagement party and our community have been targeted by anti-semites. Jews don’t cause anti-semitism, anti-semites do. Yet Judaism acknowledges that the bad actions of Jews leads to animosity to all of us and it was a clearly foreseeable consequence of their actions. This is why the avoidance of Chillul Hashem comes before all else, as does the concept of “eivah” (the requirement to break a Torah commandment rather than create animosity towards the community). First and foremost, it is the community who are the innocent victims here. It is difficult to sympathise with the mother of the groom who complained of people being “mean” in media reports. 
• It’s important to note that there has still been no apology to the Jewish community for the harm they have caused or to the broader community for the livelihoods and possibly lives they have affected. Clearly, they will pay a heavy financial price - that comes from the authorities. A community only improves by holding to account those whose behaviour falls so short of standards; that is our responsibility. It is questionable whether they will feel the sense of shame that most people in their circumstances would, given they live in a community where so many others who have disgraced themselves continue to be held in high esteem (i.e. rabbis and others who covered up child sexual abuse and intimidated victims). Many are rightly questioning why they are also above an apology, particularly in the month of Elul which supposedly has significance for them. Forgiveness is usually preceded by remorse and contrition - let’s see that before we talk of forgiveness. 
• It’s unfortunate that those who attended the Minyanim have not yet been held to account. It is widely known (and has been reported) that there were some prominent ultra-Orthodox members and rabbis present.  
• Some have sought to minimise their conduct, qualifying legitimate criticism of their conduct with a reminder that nobody’s perfect and we have all broken rules. This is absolutely inappropriate. The Premier (who has been incredibly kind to the Jewish community in recent days) described this as ‘uniquely bad’. That’s what it is. There are degrees of bad. People who break rules by speeding are not grouped with people who break rules by murdering, simply because they all break rules. 
• We can multi-task. Some have called for us to focus on our own failings at this time. We can also do that while expressing utter disgust at the behaviour.
• Some have decided that the community must leave them alone and move on and have cast aspersions on those whose anger and frustration don’t allow them to do that yet. People are entitled to express their emotions. Not hate, but anger, disgust, disappointment and the like are certainly reasonable.
• Some have the audacity to attribute blame for this situation on whoever it was (apparently many people) who shared the offending video to the media. It is they who are alleged to have caused this wave of anti-semitism directed at the community. This is something I have heard and experienced far too many times. It is abhorrent. It comes from the same people who have doubts about reporting on other Jews in any situation where they have acted illegally or grossly immorally. The source of the Chillul Hashem is the people who offend in the first place. 
• When people repeatedly bring shame on their community and are not held to account, and when a part of our community has no leadership, we find ourselves in this cycle where every few years we are on the front page of the newspapers because of them. Indeed, the current situation is similar in so many respects to the collective shame our community felt at the time of the Royal Commission. Enough is enough. Let’s address as a community why this keeps happening from the same sources. 
• It has become a natural extension of my experience and work that I have become familiar with illegal and immoral behaviour of individuals within the context of an institution or community. While acknowledging that there are many ultra-Orthodox people who shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush and comply with Covid restrictions and the laws of the land in general, the behaviour of the individuals attending the engagement party and Minyanim has not occurred in a vacuum. It occurs against an entrenched backdrop of unaccountability for bad behaviour and an attitude of superiority and disregard for the law. This is what causes individuals to laugh and mock while flouting the same laws which have caused so much hardship for the majority who mostly, if not totally, abide by them. I will not stand idly by while my community is betrayed and let down again. I will continue to work for change in my community. While some will criticise this as negative, it is necessary if we don’t want to keep finding ourselves in this position. 

Click here to read the excellent relevant opinion piece written by my brother, Rabbi Shneur Reti-Waks.

​Congratulations to all those Australians recognised in today’s Queen’s Birthday honours!

However, the awarding of an Order of Australia to former member of the Yeshivah Centre’s Committee of Management (CoM), Shlomo Werdiger, for ‘significant service to the Jewish community, and as a philanthropist’ is a major slap in the face to the many surivors of child sexual abuse who were abused on his watch. 

As a long-time member of the Yeshivah Centre’s CoM, responsible for its appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and the last member to reluctantly resign in disgrace in the wake of the Royal Commission, Werdiger was effectively responsible for the abuse of dozens of children on his watch, including some members of his own extended family. He was also responsible for the subsequent cover-ups and demonisation of those survivors and their families who simply  sought to hold Yeshivah to account. 

As a member of Yeshivah’s Com, Werdiger failed to act to prevent repeated and violent sexual abuse, including rape, being perpetrated by David Cyprys, David Kramer and Werdiger’s first cousin, Velvel Serebryanski. Werdiger was also responsible for facilitating now-convicted paedophile David Kramer’s escape from Melbourne, where he went on to sexually abuse at least another child in the United States, for which he was convicted and sentenced to almost five years in prison, before being extradited to Australia and serving more time for some of his crimes at Yeshivah.

Shlomo Werdiger has blood on his hands. 

In 2015, the Royal Commission found that ‘there was a marked absence of supportive leadership for survivors of child sexual abuse and their families within Yeshivah Melbourne and that the leadership did not create an environment conducive to the communication of information about child sexual abuse’. 

This was a direct finding of personal responsibility on the part of Werdiger.

While there is no guilt by association, it’s important to understand the broader context of Werdiger’s close family associations. His brother, David, is on my Wall of Shame for his own disgraceful attacks against victims, survivors, their families and supporters. And Shlomo's wife, Shyrla Pakula, has spewed her own vile attacks.

Shlomo Werdiger has never apologised or accepted responsibility for his role in the sexual abuse of children in his care. His entry as a Member of the Order of Australia brings disrepute on the Order and should be immediately retracted. 

Werdiger also remains an Executive Member of the United Israel Appeal (UIA) who, despite the findings of the Royal Commission, have failed to hold Werdiger to account, creating ongoing distress for many victims, survivors and their families.

If the community is serious about preventing child sexual abuse and understanding the harm it causes to victims and survivors, it must not bestow awards such as the Order of Australia on individuals responsible for child sexual abuse.