Rabbi decried ‘hype’ over child sex abuse allegations

By Pia Akerman
Australian
February 10, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/rabbi-decried-hype-over-child-sex-abuse-allegations/story-fngburq5-1227213835647

JEWISH leaders should not publicly encourage victims to go to police as it feeds media “hype” that causes “fake victims” to make allegations, says an outspoken ultra-Orthodox rabbi.

In explosive evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he was ­“annoyed” a friend who had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Yeshiva organisation faced the prospect of jail for child sex abuse, describing the victim as an informer and emailing him directly to ask whether he would be “healed” by seeing his abuser jailed.

The commission heard Rabbi Feldman — a senior rabbi at Bondi’s Yeshiva centre — had expressed concern when he learnt in 2011 that Beth Dins (rabbinical courts) in Sydney and Melbourne were planning to make public statements encouraging abuse victims to come ­forward.

“Too much hype causes miscarriages of justice,” he told the commission. “I didn’t think it was the time and place for the rabbis to come out in the media with public statements.