Jewish Leaders Accused of Covering up Sex Abuse

By Pia Akerman
The Australian
February 3, 2015

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THE royal commission into child sexual abuse has been urged to call for a criminal investigation into some of Melbourne’s most prominent Orthodox Jewish leaders, amid claims of cover-up and harassment aimed at enforcing a “code of silence”.

In its first hearing examining Jewish institutions, the royal commission yesterday heard leaders from the Yeshivah communities in Melbourne and Sydney would be challenged over what actions they had taken when allegations of abuse were made. Manny Waks, who was abused in the late 1980s by pedophile David Cyprys while Cyprys was working for the ­Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne, told the commission he had not received a direct apology from any Yeshivah leader since telling its senior rabbi, Yitzchok Dovid Groner, of his abuse in the early 2000s.

“Had Yeshivah Centre been forthright, honest, apologetic, showing contrition and that they ... work with victims and support them, there’s no way I could possibly have been so antagonistic towards them,” Mr Waks said. “But all I have seen from ­Yeshivah for the last few decades has been initially (to) ignore the abuse, then cover it up, and then be involved in intimidation and harassment.”

Mr Waks said he hoped the hearings would prompt resig­nations among Yeshivah’s leadership and said criminal liability should be considered for people in positions of authority who had knowingly turned a blind eye or helped a perpetrator flee.

“The fact that not a single person from the Yeshivah leadership has ever been held to account in any way, shape or form is astounding,” he said.