Child abuse royal commission: Sydney Rabbi Yosef Feldman accuses 'unfit' Jewish leaders of defamation, misrepresentation

By Simon Santow
ABC News
February 11, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-12/rabbi-yosef-feldman-threatens-legal-action-against-leaders/6087154

Rabbi Yosef Feldman has accused Jewish leaders of condemning him to "make themselves look good".

A senior Sydney rabbi has accused Jewish community leaders of defaming him and misrepresenting his views, after being heavily criticised over his recent evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman provoked controversy when he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he would be "asking for more leniency" for reformed or inactive paedophiles.

He also offended many people when he lashed out at the media, saying publicity about child sexual abuse "encourages even people who may not be real victims or may want to be considered heroes" to go to the police.

A host of senior Jewish leaders then took aim at Rabbi Feldman, with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies calling his views "repugnant" and declaring him to be "unfit to hold any position of authority or leadership in the Jewish community".

Now Rabbi Feldman has said he believed "everyone has been carried away by the hype without really knowing the facts".

In an escalating row that is likely to damage the Jewish community in Australia, he hit back at senior leaders.

"I feel that they are unfit to be leaders. They haven't read the transcripts because they only came out after they gave their pronouncements," he told the ABC's AM program.

"My lawyers say it's full-on defamation.

"I think that every single one of them that came out with an announcement is unfit to be a leader of that organisation."

Rabbi Feldman has also demanded a retraction and said his lawyers were looking at his options.

He said Jewish leaders had condemned him to "make themselves look good".

The rabbi defended his evidence at the commission and denied saying he believed in lenient sentences for repentant convicted paedophiles.

The 47-year-old said his resignation on Wednesday as a director on the board of management of the Yeshiva Centre in Sydney was not because he had done much wrong, but it was to counter the perception he had done anything wrong.

But when challenged about why he had resigned from a position if he had been subjected to a "rubbish" attack, he said "perception is everything".

Rabbi Feldman said he could have chosen his words more carefully.

"It's my words that have caused trouble in the community and I certainly apologise for that," he said.

"I do apologise for the fact is the words that I spoke gave room for possible misrepresentations of it and therefore that's what I apologise for, there's been damage in the community."

He said the publicity has led to him being slammed on social media and to receive death threats.

The rabbi said he had no intention of relinquishing other positions at the Southern Sydney Synagogue or as a teacher of final-year rabbinical students at the Yeshiva.

He said he hoped to return one day to the board of the Sydney Yeshiva.