Feldman out on a limb, J-Wire (February 9, 2015)

Feldman out on a limb

J-Wire
February 9, 2015

http://www.jwire.com.au/feldman-limb/

Robert Goot

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry had distanced the community from Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the spiritual head of the Southern Sydney Synagogue who has completed giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Melbourne.

In a statement released by the ECAJ, President Robert Goot and executive director Peter Wertheim say: “Rabbi Yossi Feldman’s reported statements to the Royal Commission have shocked and appalled his fellow rabbis, the Australian Jewish community and the wider community. Amongst his other objectionable comments, it is unacceptable for any religious leader to confess ignorance of basic law relating to the crime of child sexual abuse or to suggest that there are circumstances in which instances of such abuse should not be reported to the authorities. Nobody should take the law into their own hands, or be encouraged to do so.

Yossi Feldman’s statements are repugnant to Jewish values and to Judaism, which is centred on the sanctity and dignity of individual life, especially the life of a child.

We believe his position as a religious leader has become untenable. As painful as the Royal Commission is for us, it has performed an essential

service in exposing deeply troubling and misguided thinking by certain religious figures and raises questions about their education and training.”