Call to strip rabbi of authority over child sex abuse comments

By Pia Akerman
Australian
February 11, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/call-to-strip-rabbi-of-authority-over-child-sex-abuse-comments/story-fngburq5-1227215192671

THE peak body for Australia’s ­Orthodox Jews has called for a senior Yeshiva rabbi to be stripped of all authority after he said there was too much “hype” around child sexual abuse and pedophiles should be shown greater leniency for historical crimes.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman — a rabbinical director at the Bondi ­Yeshiva centre in eastern Sydney and the son of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW — has also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals when he had to deal with an abuse complaint in 2002.

His evidence has provoked a firestorm in the Jewish community, with the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia yesterday adding its voice to those ­calling for Rabbi Feldman to end his pastoral and community involvement.

“Such statements and opinions that he has expressed have no basis or foundation in Jewish law and are to be condemned ­unequivocally,” said president Romy Leibler.

“It is clear that having made such statements, Rabbi Feldman can no longer be regarded as fit and proper to serve in any communal capacity and in particular any position that involves any pastoral care and involvement within the Jewish and wider community at large.”