Chabad Principal Responds To New Child Sex Abuse Claim By Attacking Anti-Abuse Advocates, Media

"It is a pity, that instead of acknowledging and encouraging our extensive efforts in child protection,  and working together with us to ensure the safety of all our children, that Mr Manny Waks and his Tzedek organisation have instead continued to portray themselves as having a vendetta against orthodox Jewry and in particular the Yeshivah community.…"

A message from the Principal in response to the recent media

As Principal of Yeshivah College I find it most disturbing that anyone reading the Australian Jewish News or Tzedek website may be led to believe that Yeshivah College currently employs a known perpetrator of child sexual abuse. This could be no further from the truth.

We are in regular contact with the Victoria Police and the relevant authorities. The Police have made it very clear that should they believe that there is cause for concern or that we need to take action in relation to any staff member, they will contact us immediately.  The Police have unequivocally confirmed, that at present, there are no concerns about any of our staff whatsoever.

If the Police or any government agency were to make us aware of any staff member being investigated for allegations of child abuse, our school policy is clear and unequivocal; we would unhesitatingly stand them down and remove them from having any access or exposure to our children during the investigation.

We were terribly disappointed that the Australian Jewish News did not have the decency of giving Yeshivah the right of reply prior to publishing an article about an alleged staff member of our College.

It is outrageous and irresponsible for the AJN or the Tzedek advocacy group, who profess to act in the best interests of the community and the children within it, to make broad and sweeping allegations.  In doing so, they have cast suspicion on hundreds of innocent educators in circumstances when the police have confirmed there are no concerns.  This does nothing to keep children safe.

It is a pity, that instead of acknowledging and encouraging our extensive efforts in child protection,  and working together with us to ensure the safety of all our children, that Mr Manny Waks and his Tzedek organisation have instead continued to portray themselves as having a vendetta against orthodox Jewry and in particular the Yeshivah community. It is most disappointing that this vendetta also appears to be supported by the AJN.

Yeshivah, as an organisation today, can only be accused of being overly vigilant in the protection of our children – something for which we are proud.

We conclude by reassuring the community that we are absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of the most vulnerable members of the community - our children.  We prioritise child safety, with best practice in relation to staff employment policies and training, and employ effective policies to prevent, and procedures to deal with any issues should they ever arise.  We are in the forefront of student and parent education, and collaborate and work closely with the community, the Police and Government and support agencies.  Together we keep our children safe.

Once again, we call upon anyone with any information about someone they reasonably believe poses a risk to our children to immediately report their concerns to the Police.

Good Shabbos

Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler

Principal Yeshivah – Beth Rivkah Colleges

Related Post: Horrific New Child Sex Abuse Claim At Chabad's Yeshivah College.

Comments

[Edith]

"As Principal of Yeshivah College I find it most disturbing that anyone reading the Australian Jewish News or Tzedek website may be led to believe that Yeshivah College currently employs a known perpetrator of child sexual abuse. This could be no further from the truth."

So how do you explain away David Cyprys?

"Mr Manny Waks and his Tzedek organisation have instead continued to portray themselves as having a vendetta against orthodox Jewry and in particular the Yeshivah community."

Gee, I didn't know that trying your hardest to get paedophiles out of Yeshivah and into jail is 'a vendetta against orthodox Jewry'. Especially when Yeshivah has such a good track record of sending them overseas, usually to re-offend, or turning a blind eye.

In the off-chance that the Police haven't informed Rabbi Smukler of the current investigation, perhaps in the interest of the student's welfare, Rabbi Smukler could have phoned Manny asked him WTF he was taking about before this counter-productive, lawyer written letter was sent out, and then everyone included the parents would have the same picture of what is going on here.

[Michelle Coleman]

Edith,
Please get your facts straight. David Cyprys has not been an employee of Yeshivah College for well over a decade; he was not an employee of Yeshivah College until quite a number of years after he abused kids, and he passed a working with children check before starting to work there.
I don't believe anybody has issue with Manny Waks trying to get paedophiles out of Yeshivah and into jail. Rather, Mr Smukler is expressing dismay at sweeping allegations that cast aspersions on the entire staff at Yeshivah College, allegedly guilty and innocent alike, and creates an environment unlike that of McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s.
It's also important to bear in mind that just because the Jewish News says someone committed abuse, doesn't necessarily mean that they did. That is up to a court of law to decide.
Just imagine that the individual referred to in the news article is actually innocent. His life will have been destroyed long before his case even gets to court. Surely you would not want to be a part of that?

[Emanuel Newgant]

Smukler's letter is totally, wilfully misleading. He knows of the police investigation (perhaps not from the police, but he knows), and he knows who the target of the investigation is. The letter is worded very carefully. He has many good role models in Yeshivah Centre.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-suspect-protected-20110906-1jvzw.html
Detective Senior Constable Lisa Metcher said Cyprys was supported by 'high-standing members of the Jewish community' who did not say anything when the alleged offending was canvassed. 'They failed to act in any way to protect children and the matter has been swept under the carpet,' Senior Constable Metcher told Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Asked on what she based this, Senior Constable Metcher said: 'Based on the lies told to police and information that has been twisted and covered up.'

[David]

+++Please get your facts straight. David Cyprys has not been an employee of Yeshivah College for well over a decade; he was not an employee of Yeshivah College until quite a number of years after he abused kids, and he passed a working with children check before starting to work there.

Posted by: Michelle Coleman | October 12, 2013 at 09:17 AM +++

Michelle, I don't see how he could have passed a "Working With Children" check because they did not exist in Victoria until the relevant legislation was passed in 2005.

http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/factsheets/a141887/

[Another]

What Smukler and the rest of the Yeshivah Centre leadership fail to understand is that it's not enough to just make the Yeshivah an environment where kids are safe from child abusers, or (since completely safe is not an attainable goal) at least safer than they once were. They also have to make the Yeshivah community a safe place for adults to freely speak up about and seek justice for and acknowledgement of past wrongs (to themselves, when they were youngsters, or to their children), even for events that are decades old and were swept away at the time.

That community will never be a safe place for poeple to do that as long as its rabbinic and lay leadership is characterised by behaviour such as that of Rabbi Telsner, who got up on the pulpit and ranted, "Who gave you permission to talk to anyone? Which rabbi gave you permission?" [1], and who complained to a news agency that "the community should unite and help each other rather than sending emails around and making trouble". [1] Nor will it be a safe environment for people to freely speak up when they look at (and draw conclusions from) how the Yeshivah has reacted to other members of the Waks family [1,2] when they showed support for Manny, regardless of the motivations for the reaction.

Rightly or wrongly, that verbal attack from the pulpit was widely understood as prompted by the Waks's speaking out (though not before direct, private approaches failed), and the latter remark was the rabbi's reaction to a victim stepping up to fill in the gaps in the Yeshivah's initially limited circulation of a police request for cooperation.

An environment in which people fear the social consequences of speaking out against wrongs, present or past, is still not a safe one for children, no matter how many police checks and other protocols of that nature you put in place. Creating an environment free of such fear is just as important in making Yeshivah safer from child abuse as is their policies for distancing suspected paedophiles from contact with children. No environment can be made completely safe from crime, but the safest environment is one where wrongdoing is sure to be outed and reported, and where the reporters are supported rather than condemned, shunned and intimidated. Making the Yeshivah see this is an essential part of Manny's and Tzedek's campaign and it is the main reason why the Australian Jewish News and others keep hammering away at this failure on the part of the Yeshivah Centre and its community.

Policies and protocols for handling suspects, cases and victims are a matter for those in official positions. Creating an atmosphere of support for those who speak out against evil is the responsibility of the entire laity of the community, even if it means crossing the leadership.

[1] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-shunned/story-e6frg8h6-1226645236603

[Another]

And (even though this is cross-posting), for more on the same theme I highly recommend this article by Jane Silberman on Galus Australis:

More from the 'back row' on the sorry saga of abuse in our school... (June 9, 2012)
https://www.facebook.com/notes/jane-silberman/more-from-the-back-row-on-the-sorry-saga-of-abuse-in-our-school/426804180685593

I don't agree with every one of her points, but it's a well thought-out and very well written article, deserving of consideration (certainly by Smukler & co) and discussion.