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| Rabbi Yosef Feldman Accused of Mixed Messages on Child Abuse
By Katherine Towers
The Australian
September 19, 2015
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One of the most senior religious figures of the Jewish ultra-orthodox movement in NSW, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, allegedly engaged in a disingenuous “public relations” exercise in urging sexual abuse victims to contact police as he privately pressured his flock not to report outside the community.
In a scathing submission to the child sex abuse royal commission released yesterday, counsel assisting Maria Gerace said Rabbi Feldman refused to accept that Jewish organisations had a responsibility to report the sexual abuse of children to secular authorities, despite publicly stating the opposite.
She said his public statements in 2011 supporting calls for rabbinical organisations to encourage victims to report claims to police were merely an attempt to mitigate damage to his reputation caused by the publication of emails attacking the victims of sexual abuse.
In explosive evidence to the royal commission in February this year, Rabbi Feldman, formerly the president of the Rabbinical Council of NSW, said Jewish leaders should not publicly encourage victims to go to police because it fed media “hype” and caused “fake” victims to make up allegations.
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