Rabbis Slammed by Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission

Australian Jewish News
September 18, 2015

http://www.jewishnews.net.au/rabbis-slammed-by-counsel-assisting-the-royal-commission/49845

COUNSEL Assisting the Royal Commission Maria Gerace has slammed several rabbis in her submission to the Royal Commission.

Gerace said in her submissions, which were made public yesterday that Rabbi Yosef Feldman’s statement to the Royal Commission that “without qualification … it is obligatory to immediately report all allegations of sexual abuse to the police” is not a true representation of his views, that Yeshiva in Sydney was put on notice about Daniel ‘Gug’ Hayman’s abuse years before he sexually assaulted victim AVB and that alleged perpetrator AVL had informed Rabbis Pinchus Feldman and Yosef Feldman that he might leave the country, on a pre-paid ticket by Yeshiva in Sydney, within 24 hours of finding out that he was being investigated for a case of child sexual abuse.

With regards to Yeshivah in Melbourne, Gerace submitted that Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Telsner used a sermon in 2011 to convey to the community his disapproval of Manny Waks’ decision to speak publicly about his abuse, that Rabbi Avrohom Glick’s evidence that he “did not know of complaints about Cyprys prior to 2004”, “is not persuasive” and that when parents complained to rabbis about David Kramer sexually abusing children, Kramer left the country on an airline ticket paid for by the Yeshivah Centre “within days”.

In relation to David Cyprys, she submitted that Rabbi Groner was first made aware of complaints against Cyprys in 1984, was told about a complaint again in 1986 and was told about Cyprys’ ongoing abuse in 1991 but that Cyprys still continued to attend the Yeshivah Centre for a decade after the 1991 complaint.

The submissions are part of a large bundle of documents that were released yesterday (Thursday), when a do not publish order was lifted by the Royal Commission.

It should be noted that this is submissions, not findings, and that institutions and individuals have responded to the claimed by the Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission but those have not been made available at this stage and the article will be updated when they are.

The commissioners are expected to release their final finding in the next six months.

For more details from the documents released see next week’s AJN.