Rabbi delisted over abuse inquiry evidence
The Australian
Katherine Towers
21 February 2015
THE international headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement has taken the rare step of intervening in the affairs of its Australian arm, delisting a senior rabbi over his evidence to the sexual abuse royal commission and calling for institutional change among Jewish spiritual leaders in Australia. As the worldwide fallout from evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continued, it was revealed yesterday that the Chabad headquarters in New York had this week taken the “extremely serious” step of delisting one of Australia’s most senior rabbis, Yossi Feldman, over his controversial evidence to the royal commission.
Rabbi Feldman, son of the Chabad movement’s head in NSW, provoked worldwide outrage when he told the royal commission in some circumstances pedophiles should receive leniency and he didn’t know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals.
Rabbi Feldman’s delisting came shortly after Australia’s most senior rabbi, Meir Kluwgant, resigned in disgrace as president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, the country’s peak organisation of rabbis, after he was forced to admit at the commission that he had sent a recent text message calling the father of several abuse victims a “lunatic”.
It also came after the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia this week moved to shrug off the taint of the commission, announcing that for the first time it would exclude members of its community who had disgraced the ultra-orthodox movement, that it would change its name and vacate all official positions. Interim president of the New Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, Rabbi Selwyn Franklin, who this week took over as Australia’s most senior rabbi, yesterday told The Australian he had never heard of a rabbi being “delisted” anywhere in the world.
Delisting means the person involved can no longer spread the ultra -orthodox spiritual message.
Rabbi Franklin confirmed that Rabbi Feldman had been delisted and said it was highly unusual for Chabad headquarters to involve itself in Australian affairs.
“It’s extremely serious,” Rabbi Franklin said of the delisting of Rabbi Feldman. “I’ve worked all over the world and I have never heard of it happening before.”
Rabbi Franklin also called on all Jewish congregations to boycott employing rabbis who had been implicated in any allegation of covering-up sexual abuse of children, or intimidation of victims and their families who had reached out to non-Jewish authorities. “Any rabbi who has violated our fundamental role of protecting the vulnerable has no right to call himself a rabbi or be employed as a rabbi.”
President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Robert Goot yesterday said the fallout within the ultra-orthodox community from the royal commission had been significant. “For most people in the Jewish community, and indeed in the (ultraorthodox) Yeshiva congregations, the credibility and standing of some rabbis have been severely damaged by what emerged in the royal commission proceedings,” he said. “This has greatly diminished the respect in which they were formerly held.
“This is reflected by the formation of a new organisation … which apparently will exclude anyone responsible for the covering up of any abuse or the ostracism of survivors or their families.
Rabbi Feldman did not return calls to The Australian yesterday.
Originally published at The Australian.
Rabbi Feldman, son of the Chabad movement’s head in NSW, provoked worldwide outrage when he told the royal commission in some circumstances pedophiles should receive leniency and he didn’t know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals.
Rabbi Feldman’s delisting came shortly after Australia’s most senior rabbi, Meir Kluwgant, resigned in disgrace as president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, the country’s peak organisation of rabbis, after he was forced to admit at the commission that he had sent a recent text message calling the father of several abuse victims a “lunatic”.
It also came after the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia this week moved to shrug off the taint of the commission, announcing that for the first time it would exclude members of its community who had disgraced the ultra-orthodox movement, that it would change its name and vacate all official positions. Interim president of the New Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, Rabbi Selwyn Franklin, who this week took over as Australia’s most senior rabbi, yesterday told The Australian he had never heard of a rabbi being “delisted” anywhere in the world.
Delisting means the person involved can no longer spread the ultra -orthodox spiritual message.
Rabbi Franklin confirmed that Rabbi Feldman had been delisted and said it was highly unusual for Chabad headquarters to involve itself in Australian affairs.
“It’s extremely serious,” Rabbi Franklin said of the delisting of Rabbi Feldman. “I’ve worked all over the world and I have never heard of it happening before.”
Rabbi Franklin also called on all Jewish congregations to boycott employing rabbis who had been implicated in any allegation of covering-up sexual abuse of children, or intimidation of victims and their families who had reached out to non-Jewish authorities. “Any rabbi who has violated our fundamental role of protecting the vulnerable has no right to call himself a rabbi or be employed as a rabbi.”
President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Robert Goot yesterday said the fallout within the ultra-orthodox community from the royal commission had been significant. “For most people in the Jewish community, and indeed in the (ultraorthodox) Yeshiva congregations, the credibility and standing of some rabbis have been severely damaged by what emerged in the royal commission proceedings,” he said. “This has greatly diminished the respect in which they were formerly held.
“This is reflected by the formation of a new organisation … which apparently will exclude anyone responsible for the covering up of any abuse or the ostracism of survivors or their families.
Rabbi Feldman did not return calls to The Australian yesterday.
Originally published at The Australian.